Studying Chemistry! - Weekly Blog #17

https://www.extremetech.com/tag/elements

Summary

This week, we studied elements, compounds, atoms, matter, mass, density and volume. Chemistry put simply is the study in changes of matter and its properties. The atom is the smallest unit of life, and the basic building block of all matter. Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass. Density is how much stuff there is in a given space. Volume is how much space something takes up. An element is a pure substance made up of only one kind of atom. A compound is a substance made up of different elements/atoms. I applied all this information in several gizmos and worksheets that were used over the course of the week.

S&EP: Using Models

During the week, we used a model to determine the mass of marbles and pennies. We used several tools to aid us in this process, as well as several studies. The tools we used include a 10 ml graduated cylinder, 100 ml graduated cylinder, cup of water, and eye dropper. We also used the lab resource pages, and formulas for density and volume. We used the formula for volume which is volume = Length x Width x Height, as well as the formula to calculate density, which is Density = mass / volume. We used a method known as the water displacement method to figure out the volume of 5 marbles. We compared the water displacement method to the formula using a stack of 10 pennies. This is how we applied models this week.

XCC: Stability and Change

There is a great factor of stability and change when it comes to atoms. In an atom there are protons, neutrons, and electrons. These are all factors that determine its ion, stability, and charge. This brings in several key factors that involves stability in an atom. For an example, lets say you have a hydrogen atom with one proton, neutron, and electron. This would mean that the atom would be stable and have a neutral charge. On the other hand, lets say you have one carbon atom with 6 protons 8 neutrons and 4 electrons. This would mean that you would have an unstable atom (due to there being too many neutrons) with a positive 2 ion (because there is 2 less electrons, making the atom have a plus 2 charge). As you can tell, there was a great change when there were added or removed protons, neutrons, or electrons. This is how stability and change is applied in chemistry.