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Quantitative Chemistry
infoWhy this? Quantitative chemistry makes chemical change measurable and predictive by relating formulae and equations to masses, moles, and concentrations. Fluency in these relationships helps us check the plausibility of results and reason reliably about reactant requirements and product quantities.
scheduleWhy now? Revisiting the Year 10 unit consolidates the links between formulae, equations, and measurable quantities. This strengthens the calculation and concentration knowledge needed for Rates of Reactions and later combustion calculations in Organic Chemistry.
neurologyYou need to know
- The law of conservation of mass states that mass is neither created nor destroyed during a chemical reaction because atoms are rearranged, not created or destroyed.
- In a closed system, no substances enter or leave, so the total mass of the reactants equals the total mass of the products.
- A reaction can appear to lose mass if a gaseous product escapes, such as carbon dioxide released when an acid reacts with a carbonate.
- A reaction can appear to gain mass if a gas from the surroundings reacts with the substances being weighed, such as oxygen combining with magnesium during burning.
- A symbol equation shows reactants on the left and products on the right, with chemical formulae identifying the elements and the numbers or ratios of atoms in each substance.
- A balanced equation has equal numbers of atoms of each element on both sides, achieved by changing the coefficients before formulae rather than the subscripts within them.
- Relative atomic mass is the weighted mean mass of an atom of an element compared with one-twelfth of the mass of a carbon-12 atom.
- Relative atomic mass is calculated from percentage isotope abundances using `A_r = \frac{\sum(\text{isotope mass} \times \text{percentage abundance})}{100}`.
- Relative formula mass is the sum of the relative atomic masses of all the atoms shown in a chemical formula, and both relative atomic mass and relative formula mass have no units.
- A mole is an amount of substance containing approximately `6.02 \times 10^{23}` specified particles, which may be atoms, molecules, ions, or formula units.
- The Avogadro constant is the number of particles per mole and has an approximate value of `6.02 \times 10^{23}\ \text{mol}^{-1}`.
- The mass of one mole of a substance in grams is numerically equal to its relative atomic mass or relative formula mass, and its molar mass is expressed in grams per mole.
- Amount in moles, mass, and molar mass are related by `n = \frac{m}{M}`, where mass is measured in grams and molar mass in grams per mole.
- The coefficients in a balanced chemical equation give the mole ratios in which reactants react and products form, not their mass ratios.
- The equation `\mathrm{Mg + 2HCl \rightarrow MgCl_2 + H_2}` shows that one mole of magnesium reacts with two moles of hydrochloric acid to produce one mole of magnesium chloride and one mole of hydrogen.
- The limiting reactant is used up first and determines the maximum amount of product that can form.
- An excess reactant remains after the limiting reactant is used up, so adding more of the excess reactant alone does not increase the amount of product.
- Equation coefficients can be found from reacting masses by converting each mass to moles and expressing the mole amounts as the simplest whole-number ratio.
- Mass concentration is the mass of dissolved solute per unit volume of solution, given by `c = \frac{m}{V}`, so increasing solute mass at fixed volume increases concentration while increasing volume at fixed solute mass decreases it.
- A concentration in grams per cubic decimetre requires solution volume in cubic decimetres, with `1\ \text{dm}^{3} = 1000\ \text{cm}^{3}`.
rocket_launchYou must be able to
- Calculate an unknown reactant or product mass using conservation of mass, including the masses of any gases that enter or leave the measured system.
- Balance symbol equations using the smallest whole-number coefficients, checking the atom count for every element without changing chemical formulae.
- Calculate relative atomic mass from isotope masses and percentage abundances by finding the weighted mean.
- Calculate relative formula mass using periodic table values, accounting correctly for subscripts and brackets in chemical formulae.
- Calculate amount in moles from mass and molar mass, or mass from amount in moles and molar mass, giving the appropriate units.
- Calculate an unknown reacting mass or product mass by converting the known mass to moles, applying the balanced equation's mole ratio, and converting back to grams.
- Identify the limiting and excess reactants by comparing each available mole amount with its equation coefficient, then calculate the maximum product amount from the limiting reactant.
- Deduce equation coefficients from masses of reactants and products by converting masses to moles and reducing the amounts to a whole-number ratio that balances the equation.
- Calculate concentration, solute mass, or solution volume using mass concentration, converting between cubic centimetres and cubic decimetres where necessary.