STUDY GUIDE 1:
CHAPTERS 1-3
CHEMISTRY OF ORGANIC AND BIOLOGICAL
MOLECULES 1
Fall 2001
For the first examination, you should be
able to:
- use critical thinking skills in analyzing
problems
- use the unit factor (dimensional analysis)
method in problem solving.
- express numbers in scientific notation to
the appropriate number of significant figures and with the correct
units.
- understand the difference between
homogeneous (solutions) and heterogeneous mixtures and the
difference between pure elements and pure compounds, giving
examples.
- understand the principles underlying
methods to separate the components of mixtures into pure
substances; explain the principles of chromatography.
- understand the differences between chemical
and physical reactions.
- briefly describe the development of our
modern concept of the matter, including the ideas of the ancient
Greeks, Phlogiston Theory, Priestly's discovery of oxygen, and the
contributions of Lavoisier (development of quantitative chemistry;
Law of Mass Conservation, demise of Phlogiston theory)
- explain Dalton's Atomic Theory and how it
explained the Laws of Mass Conservation.
- explain our modern concepts of atoms
(protons, neutrons, and electrons), the difference between
molecules, atom, ions, molecular ions.
- name binary compounds of metals with
nonmetals and nonmetals with nonmetals.
- understand the meaning of atomic number,
atomic weight, and isotopes
- given the atomic number, determine the
number of protons, electrons, and neutrons in an atom.
- write the electronic configuration of
different elements by placing electrons into s, p, d, and f
orbitals in inner and outer shells.
- explain how the structure of the periodic
table, and the reactivity of elements in groups in the table is
determined by the electronic configuration of the
elements
- explain the different types of bonds
(ionic, polar covalent, nonpolar covalent) between atoms or ions
in molecules,
- determine the formal charge on an atom or ion, and
determine if an atom in a covalent bond as a slight negative or positive
charge
- draw the best Lewis structures for
covalently bonded molecules, showing the formal charge and
presence of slight positive and negative charge on the atoms
within the structure
- name and draw the structure of common polyatomic or
molecular ions
- describe how common polyatomic or molecular anions are
derived from the reaction of common oxyacids with bases (water or
hydroxide), drawing a mechanism to show how it may happen
- predict the geometry of the electrons
clouds around the central atoms of a molecule or molecular ion,
and the geometry of the actual atoms around the central atom using
VSEPR or OSEPR theory.