Acids & Bases (Basic Principles Of)

Hello hello! We're coming into the last stretch of the semester, with finals week starting this very Friday for us (yoohoo, hi Wellesley students!) So, that leaves me with one more unit of chemistry that I want to cover, which is.... acids and bases! Go ahead and check out last time's crash course on Electrochemistry if you …

Electrochemistry

Thrilled you're here. If you haven't already, I would recommend checking out some of my previous crash courses on Chemistry, such as Chemical Equilibrium from last week. Electrochemistry is the study of redox reactions in the production of (1) electrical currents from spontaneous chemical reactions, and (2) non-spontaneous chemical changes by the use of electrical currents. There …

Chemical Equilibrium

Thanks for joining me again for the newest installment of my crash course series on Chemistry! In case you missed it, last time I wrote on Spontaneity, Entropy, & Free Energy, and today's lesson will be on chemical equilibrium! From last time, we know that If we take the antilogarithm, we get From this equation we …

Spontaneity, Entropy, & Free Energy

Hello there! If you're joining me for the first time, I would recommend checking out some of my previous crash course posts as well. My last post was on Thermochemistry. Today's lesson is going to be long and it's going to be hard! It won't be too bad, because I'm going to try my best to …

Thermochemistry.

Hi there! So I know the previous notes that I've given you in this chemistry series have been difficult. They really are, even for me. That's why teaching it and explaining it in my own words is so helpful for me, and why I'm being persistent in continuing the material. Thankfully, thermochemistry is easier and …

An Initiation to Chemical Kinetics

In chemical reactions, we seek to answer two main questions: How can we know whether a reaction will be spontaneous? Once started, how fast will the reaction proceed? The laws of thermodynamics help us answer (1). Chemical kinetics help us answer (2). The energy difference between products (C+D) and reactants (A+B) pertains to thermodynamics. The …

Transition Metals Crash Course

Hey there, so this is the periodic table. Most of the elements you see here are metals. What are metals like? If you recall from my previous post, Chemical Bonds, Especially Covalent Ones, you will remember a bit of metallic bonding. Electrons are loosely held and they move through a lattice, lending some physical characteristics to …

Chemical Bonds, Especially Covalent Ones

I'm back again with my crash course series on chemistry! Chemical bonds are strong links between atoms within a molecule and are really hard to break. Between molecules, there can be attractive forces too, but these are much weaker and not considered chemical bonds. Today we will be seeing how the shapes of atomic orbitals …

A look at “many-electron atoms”

Last time, when talking about quantum mechanics, we used Hydrogen as our prime example. That's because Schrödinger's equation for H can be exactly solved, but that's not so for the other elements on the periodic table. Any atom that contains two or more electrons is called a many-electron atom. This excludes H, He+, Li2+, etc. …

Intro to Quantum Mechanics

Hello hello! I'm a first-year at Wellesley College, an all-women's liberal arts college in Massachusetts. I'm teaching a series of crash courses on Chemistry - you can find the page here. Without further ado, let's dive into the world of quantum mechanics - no previous experience necessary, but it gets intense, so follow along! (Bear …