General Chemistry - Introduction to Terminology and Measurement

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts, properties of matter, mixtures, units of measurement, and precision versus accuracy from Chapter 1.

Chemistry

The study of the properties, composition, structure, and reactions of matter.

Matter

Anything that has mass and occupies space.

Mass

A measure of the quantity of matter in an object, which is conserved regardless of gravitational pull.

Physical Properties

Characteristics such as color, odor, density, melting point, boiling point, and hardness that can be observed without changing the identity or composition of the substance.

Qualitative Properties

Properties that describe what is present within a substance.

Quantitative Properties

Properties that describe how much of a particular substance or component is present.

Substance

Matter that has distinct properties and a composition that does not vary from sample to sample.

Element

A substance consisting of only one kind of atom that cannot be decomposed into simpler substances.

Compound

A substance composed of two or more different kinds of atoms that can be decomposed into simpler substances.

Heterogeneous Mixture

A mixture that is not uniform in composition throughout.

Homogeneous Mixture

A mixture that is uniform in composition throughout, also referred to as a solution.

Solution

A synonym for a homogeneous mixture.

Law of Constant Composition

Also known as the law of definite proportions, it states that the elemental composition of a pure compound is always constant.

Intensive Property

A property that is independent of the amount of substance present, such as density.

Extensive Property

A property that depends on the sample size or amount of substance present, such as mass.

Distillation

A separation process that uses boiling to separate components of a liquid mixture.

Kelvin Scale

An absolute temperature scale where $0\,\text{K}$ represents absolute zero, the state where there is no molecular motion whatsoever.

Heat

Energy transferred from one object to another due to a difference in temperature.

Joule

The SI derived unit of energy, defined mathematically as $1\,\text{kg}\times\text{m}^2/\text{s}^2$.

Kinetic Energy

Energy associated with motion, calculated using the formula $\frac{1}{2} m v^2$.

Potential Energy

Stored energy resulting from relative position or the chemical arrangement of atoms and electrons.

Precision

A measure of how closely individual, repeated measurements agree with one another (reproducibility).

Accuracy

A measure of how close a experimental measurement is to the correct or true value.

Standard Deviation

A statistical measure reflecting the precision of a dataset by evaluating how far individual measurements deviate from the average.