[5.01/5.09] The Plambeck Course

The Introductory Chemistry Course is a PSIGate offering from Dr James Plambeck, a chemist retired from the University of Alberta. Material is reliable and made freely available to all students of chemistry. Warning: University-level course, heavily text-based. May therefore not be suitable for some young people.

[5.01/5.09] ChemWorld

ChemWorld at Thinkquest.org is a pretty well-designed site for those aiming at post-secondary courses like AP Chemistry and IBDP HL Chem. I would like to draw attention to the friendly formatting and reasonably well-designed pages. The layout is OK, although sometimes the text is too close for comfort. Enjoy. And revise for the test, which I shall endeavour to hold on the day latest in the week.

[5.01/5.09] Definitions

Why do you think this is important at all?

In fact, for those who can spare the time, it is extremely instructive to read about the criteria for recognising new elements. Read, especially, section II.2 on the linked page. It is almost like a class in the Theory of Knowledge. Definitions are indeed somewhat arbitrary, while saving us from arbitrariness. This is the glorious paradox of definition.

[5.01/5.09] Electronic Structure Slides

Here is a Media Portfolio containing many interesting diagrams of explanatory nature. (Prentice-Hall materials are pretty good, should you be looking for alternative textbooks.) If you navigate backwards through the page (i.e. through the links at the top), you will find that you can download the whole thing as a PowerPoint file, and even find other useful materials.

[5.01/5.09] Atomic Theory/Electronic Structure

Readings for this topic:
Electronic Configuration of Atoms — material from basic to in-depth.

Note that subunits 4.1 to 4.5 will take you up to the current topic, while the remainder will take you up to the end of the term or so. Have fun.

[5.01/5.09] Avogadro's Number

As supplementary reading, please look at: Avogadro's Number.

Wisdom

Wittgenstein once remarked, "That Newtonian mechanics can be used to describe the world tells nothing about the world. Nevertheless it tells us something: that it can be used to describe the world in the way in which we do in fact use it."

I don't personally know any Newtonian mechanics, although I have friends who are perfectly capable mechanics. It strikes me, in particular, however that many scientists fail to pay sufficient homage to the common-sense realities of life - that people can be stupid, or venal, or careless, or insensitive; that science is an excellent way of making a particularly rigorous but not necessarily useful construct for dealing with life; that we are all in charge of reality by virtue of interpreting it however we want.

But in this House of the Wyvern, my dear apprentices, you must first learn to measure, to count, to recount, and to account.

I leave you with a quote from the ancient canon of Moses, the great thaumaturge of the Hebrews. The Second Book of Law says, in chapter 25, verse 15, "You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you." And that is the beginning of practical alchemy.