General Chemistry 1: Matter and its Properties

Study Notes

Chemistry is the scientific discipline that studies the composition, structure, properties, and reactions of matter, especially at the atomic and molecular level. It uses chemical equations to explain the behavior of substances and their changes during reactions.

Knowledge (K): Explain the properties of matter and its various forms.
Skills (S): Use properties to identify and separate substances.
Application (A): Relate matter's properties to understanding natural phenomena.

Employ the properties of matter to identify and separate substances. (STEM_GC11-MP-la-b-5)
Recognize the formulas of common chemical substances. (STEM_GC11-MP-la-b-9)
Compare consumer products based on components, use, safety, quality, and cost. (STEM_GC11-MP-la-b-11)
Describe simple separation techniques such as distillation and chromatography. (STEM_GC11MPIa-b-12)

Matter is anything that has mass and occupies space. It constitutes everything around us, including solids, liquids, and gases.

Solids: Particles are tightly packed in a fixed arrangement. They can vibrate but not move.
Liquids: Particles are close together but not in a fixed arrangement. They can move and slide past each other.
Gases: Particles are free-floating with no fixed arrangement. They move and collide with each other.

Intensive Properties: Do not depend on the amount of matter in a sample. Examples include boiling point, color, temperature, luster, hardness, density.
Extensive Properties: Depend on the amount of matter in a sample. Examples include volume, mass, size, weight, length.
Density: Intensive property, calculated as mass per unit volume.

Properties that can be observed only by changing the composition of a material. Examples include burning, decomposing, fermenting, reacting with.

Properties that change the visible appearance without altering the composition of a material. Examples include changes in state (melting, freezing, etc.) and other physical alterations (cutting, bending, splitting, cracking).

Matter: Can be a mixture or a pure substance.
Mixtures: Physical unions of two or more substances with varying compositions.
Pure Substances: Constant composition and fixed properties.
Elements: Cannot be broken down into simpler substances; 118 of them exist.
Compounds: Chemical combinations of two or more elements, have definite, constant elemental compositions.
Homogenous Mixtures: Uniform properties throughout.
Heterogenous Mixtures: Properties vary throughout.

Classifying samples of matter as pure substances or mixtures.
Determining the formulas of common substances (water, table salt, baking soda, sugar, vinegar, etc., H₂O, NaCl, NaHCO₃, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, CH₃COOH).
Using chemical formulas to identify common chemicals found in households (e.g., ethanol (C₂H₅OH) , aluminum chlorohydrate(Al₂Cl(OSH)₅), acetylsalicylic acid (C₉H₈O₄) , hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), ammonia (NH₃), alcohol (ethanol) (C₂H₅OH), carbon dioxide (CO₂), oxygen gas (O₂)).
Studying properties of compounds found in household items and comparing these properties to the mixture/item they are contained in.