Blog 9

We just took the quiz on Stoichimetry and it was very challenging.  This is easily the hardest standard we have had so far.  I don't even know what the hardest part about this standard was... all of it was challenging.  I still am not 100% sure on how to do everything so I will have to look up some videos explaining it, or ask Shoe for extra help.

Blog 8

We just learned about ideal gases and how to solve for partial pressures.  I liked learning all this stuff about the properties of gases and how just the differential in pressure and temperature can cause a can to impload. Learning how to use the equation PV=nRT was a little more difficult than anything else we did in this standard, but now that I get it, doing all this is a lot easier. I hope we get to learn more about gases and their properties.

Blog 7

We recently just learned about and took a test on covalent bonds and and how to draw the lewis structure for different bonds.  A covalent bond is a bond between two or more non metals, such as phosphorus and nitrogen.  Since these are both non metals, they both have high electronegativity so they both want to take a valence electron, so instead of fighting over a valence electron they just share which is where you get the term covalent.

Blog 6

We just learned about ionic compounds.  Ionic compounds are when elements combine to try to reach their balanced state using the octet rule.  The octet rule is that all elements want to reach the noble gas level of valence electrons which is 8.  Some elements such as sodium or iron like to give away their lasting electrons to help another element reach the octet rule, when they give away the rest of their electrons on their last energy level, they just drop down one energy level which helps them reach the octet rule.  Learning this will help me in my future of becoming a biochemist just so I can better understand elements and atoms.

Blog 5

We learned about Periodic Trends recently.  Periodic Trends are things such as how the amount of electronegativity decreases as the atomic number increases, and how the ionization energy increases when protons are added and there is a decrease in the atomic radius.  We also learned about valence electrons, how they are the outermost energy level, and how many each family has a different amount of valence electrons.  The ionization level increases as you go across the periods, so Carbon has a higher ionization energy then Nitrogen since it has more protons.  Also the electronegativity increases and decreases in relation to the families.  So Francium has a lower electronegativity then Caesium since it has a bigger atomic radius.

Blog 4

We learned about the Bohr Model and the Probability Model.  They were both very interesting models and I enjoyed learning about both.  The Bohr Model is basically how each atom has energy levels around it.  The closer to the nucleus you are (level 1) the harder it is to jump to the next energy level, yet the farther you are away from the nucleus the more energy you have.  The Probability Model is basically an extension of the Bohr Model, yet there is no fixed position for the electrons orbiting the nucleus.  Instead they are located in the probability cloud which is just an area around each energy level where the electrons can be located.  I think knowing this will help us further our knowledge of atoms and how exactly they function and possibly how to stabilize new man made elements.

Blog 3

Recently we have learned about waves and the visible light spectrum.  We have learned that light is a wave, the higher the frequency, and shorter the wavelength, the higher amount of energy the light posses.  Such as the color red, it has the least amount of lowest frequency and the longest wavelength in the visible light spectrum, which means it has the least amount of energy.  Gamma rays have the most energy because they are pure energy.  Radio waves have the least amount of energy of everything.