Fall 2025 Chemistry Semester Exam Outline

A collection of vocabulary flashcards from the Fall 2025 Chemistry Semester Exam Outline, covering key terms and concepts related to atomic structure, electron arrangement, and chemical bonding.

Mole

A unit that measures the amount of substance, equal to Avogadro's number of particles.

Aufbau Principle

A principle that states electrons occupy the lowest energy orbitals first.

Pauli Exclusion Principle

A principle which states that no two electrons can have the same set of quantum numbers.

Hund's Rule

The principle that electrons will fill degenerate orbitals singly before pairing up.

Bohr Model

An atomic model that depicts electrons orbiting the nucleus in defined paths.

Photon Energy

The energy carried by a single photon, proportional to its frequency.

Covalent Bonding

A type of chemical bond that involves the sharing of electron pairs between atoms.

Valence Electrons

Electrons in the outermost shell of an atom that determine its chemical properties.

Atomic Emission Spectrum

The spectrum of wavelengths of light emitted by atoms when electrons transition between energy levels.

Electromagnetic Radiation

A form of energy that travels through space at the speed of light.

Quantum Mechanical Model

The model of the atom that describes electrons as wave functions rather than classical particles.

Energy Orbital Diagram

A visual representation of the distribution of electrons in an atom's orbitals.

Effective Nuclear Charge

The net positive charge experienced by an electron in a multi-electron atom.

Ionization Energy

The energy required to remove an electron from an atom in its gaseous state.

Electronegativity

A measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons.