Welcome to the World of Chemistry and Matter

–Chemistry is the study of • the composition/properties of matter

• the changes that matter undergoes.

What is Chemistry all About?

What is matter?

• Anything that has mass and takes up space• Made of atoms (we will study these later)

Measuring Matter

Matter is measured in two ways1. Mass2. Volume

What is mass?

• Mass is the amount of living and nonliving material that makes up an object

Suitcase A Suitcase B

What is volume?

• Volume is the amount of space an object takes up

Sort the words below..cat bicycle air fungi cork

water flower metal soil lemonade

tree sunlight cell bacteria gold

sound rock oxygen wooden chair gravity

leather shoes bird paper book cheetah

Branches of Chemistry• Branches include:

– Organic Chemistry– Inorganic Chemistry– Biochemistry– Physical Chemistry– Analytical Chemistry

• Several career opportunities• Also used in many other jobs

The Feces Angle:• To understand the difference between the

different branches of chemistry we are going to use the feces angle:– 5 chemists from each of the 5 branches of chemistry

are out hiking the Appalachian trail on a cold day. They come upon some fresh, steaming scat. Did it come from a rabbit? A deer? A bear?!

– What will a chemist from each branch determine about the scat?

1. Organic Chemistry• Organic chemistry: study of matter

that contains carbon• Organic chemists study the

structure, function, synthesis, and identity of carbon compounds

• Common Careers: – petroleum industry, pharmaceuticals

(medicine), polymers (plastics), food• Feces Angle:

– The organic chemist would take a sample of scat and test it (NMR and IR tests) to see if the animal was a vegetarian or carnivore based on the various degraded foods present in the scat.

2. Inorganic Chemistry• Inorganic chemistry: study of

matter that does NOT contain carbon

• Inorganic chemists study the structure, function, synthesis, and identity of non-carbon compounds

• Many inorganic chemicals are found in nonliving things, such as rocks.

• Common Careers: – Polymers (plastics), Metallurgy

• Feces Angle:– The inorganic chemist would

take a sample of scat and figure out if it is an acid (like vinegar) or a base (like lye) by dropping into a pH indicator liquid.

3. Biochemistry• Biochemistry: the study of

chemistry in living things• Cross between biology and

chemistry• Common Careers:

– Pharmaceuticals (medicine), genetics, oncologist (research cancer)

• Feces Angle:– A biochemist would take a

sample of scat and test it to see if the animal was infected with any kinds of worms or other intestinal parasites. This chemist would also tell you how well the animal was digesting his food.

4. Physical Chemistry• Physical Chemistry: the study of

the changes in energy that happen to matter– Relies on a lot of physics and math – deals with the mechanism, the

rate, and the energy transfer that occurs when matter undergoes a change.

• Much of p-chem is computational• Develop theoretical ideas for new

compounds• Feces Angle:

– The physical chemist might take the results that the organic chemist found and get more information about the degraded food. The physical chemist would not touch the scat!

HONK if you

passed p-chem

5. Analytical Chemistry• Analytical Chemistry: study of

high precision measurement to find composition and identity of chemicals

• Common Careers: – Forensics, quality control,

medical tests• Feces Angle:

– The analytical chemist would take a sample of scat and calculate if the animal was drinking clean or polluted water based on the levels of pollution chemicals in the feces. This chemist would also tell you the quantities of everything that is in the scat.

• ELEMENTS- – pure substances that cannot be broken down by

ordinary means to other substances.

Sodium

BromineAluminum

The Language of Chemistry

• The elements, their names, and symbols are given on the PERIODIC TABLE

• How many elements are there?

118 elements have been identified•82 elements occur naturally on Earth

Examples: gold, aluminum, lead, oxygen, carbon

•35 elements have been created by scientistsExamples: technetium, americium,

seaborgium

The Language of Chemistry

The Periodic Table

Dmitri Mendeleev (1834 - 1907)

Glenn Seaborg(1912-1999)

• Discovered 8 new elements.

• Only living person for whom an element was named.

Periodic Table Activity

• Since the periodic table is like the alphabet and we use the “letters” (atoms) to form words (“molecules”) let’s start with some practice. Make some words out of the symbols from the periodic table. Try to make the longest words you can think of. There is a prize for the longest word and the most words.

• Examples:– He + At = HeAt – S+ U + P + Er = SUPEr