Intro

Module Summary

• Chemistry is important to everyone because chemistry occurs all around us in our daily lives.

• Chemistry is the science that deals with the materials of the uni- verse and the changes that these materials undergo.

• Scientific thinking helps us solve all types of problems that we confront in our lives.

• Scientific thinking involves observations that enable us to clearly define both a problem and the construction and evaluation of possible explanations or solutions to the problem.

• (Figure 1.1) The scientific method is a procedure for processing the information that flows from the world around us in which we

  • Make observations.

  • Formulate hypotheses.

  • Perform experiments.

• Models represent our attempt to understand the world around us.

  • Models are not the same as “reality.”

  • Elementary models are based on the properties of atoms and molecules.

• Understanding chemistry takes hard work and patience. As you learn chemistry, you should be able to understand, explain, and predict phenomena in the macroscopic world by using mod-els based in the microscopic world.

• Understanding is different from memorizing.

• It is acceptable to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.

What's next

Chapter 2 Measurements and Calculations. Describing your observations to other readers is best done mathematically. Chapter 2 is teaches you how to accurately report measurements and how to perform the simple calculations need in chemistry.

Reminders

Please review the course schedule for due dates for the Chapter 2 Assignments. Daily participation in this class will be your best way to succeed. Review the videos and PowerPoints, work the suggest EOC problems (without looking at the answers; working "backwards" will not help you in learning the material).