Bonding
We started the Bonding unit by electrocuting a pickle. The purpose of this was to show how electrons move from one item, to or through another, similar to an ionic bond.
Directly following the pickle demonstration, we experimented with various different mixtures and solutions testing for conductivity. We found the most conductive mixtures had to be able to transmit electrons quickly between the atoms in said mixture. Salt water is a great conductor since the electrons are able to easily "jump" from Na to Cl with the water helping the jump in between the two atoms.
In addition to testing for conductivity, we also mixed various substances to identify said substances based on resulting color.
Here, Ramsey melted a post-1982 penny to separate the zinc inside from it's copper shell. This is possible because the atoms in zinc have less pull on each other than copper atoms, meaning the zinc atoms have an easier time "speeding up" and changing form from a liquid to a solid than copper atoms.
While we were learning how to draw Lewis Structures, we were shown this extremely useful tool for finding the amount of bonds a compound or molecule has. The only exceptions to this rule of bonds is that because of their electron count, Hydrogen and Boron both want 2 and 6 respectively.
The final major concept we covered in the bonding unit was that of the shape compounds or molecules take. This depends on a two main factors, lone pairs, and the amount of atoms bonded to the "center" or "anchor" atom.
Learning Reflection
There was only one major concept I stumbled with at first. The most important being Lewis Structures, since in my mind I had always pictured a Lewis Structure as being heavily related to the Bohr Model, and while they are in a sense "related", the purpose of the Lewis Structure is much different than that of a Bohr Model. Additionally, learning the formula for calculating the number of bonds in a molecule was, or is, immensely helpful, reducing the amount of time needed to make a Lewis Structure in the first place. I will admit that I do cut corners whenever possible I go off of my own knowledge and use the bond formula to double check my already drawn diagram. This strategy does open up problems, but I've found that as long as I double check, I can normally catch my mistakes. Besides the topic of Lewis Structures, the rest of the unit was great, filling in a lot of the gaps I had in my knowledge of covalent and ionic bonding. Now however, my questions are directed towards polarity, since in the brief glimpse of what we've covered in class, it fascinates me to think that covalent bonds can still have a (small) positive and negative charge with them. Going forward I'd be interested in seeing a complete list or table of binding energy measures for the periodic table so I can more accurately draw polar Lewis Structures.