Table of Contents

What is chemistry? Simply put, chemistry is the study of the interactions of matter with other matter and with energy. This seems straightforward enough. However, the definition of chemistry includes a wide range of topics that must be understood to gain a mastery of the topic or even take additional courses in chemistry.

Mathematics is used widely in chemistry and are absolutely necessary to explore important concepts in chemistry. Without some basic mathematics skills, these calculations, and therefore chemistry itself, will be extremely difficult. However, with a basic knowledge of some of the mathematics that will be used in your chemistry course, you will be well prepared to deal with the concepts and theories of chemistry.

Valence electrons are outer shell electrons with an atom and can participate in the formation of chemical bonds. In single covalent bonds, typically both atoms in the bond contribute one valence electron in order to form a shared pair.

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions. Discoveries in nuclear physics have led to applications in many fields. This includes nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging, industrial and agricultural isotopes, ion implantation in materials engineering, and radiocarbon dating in geology and archeology. Such applications are studied in the field of nuclear engineering.

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or from a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb). Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.

Even before the atomic bomb had been produced, scientists and engineers had begun to think about the possibility of using the energy released by the fission process for the production of electrical energy. In the United States only 19.7 percent of the electrical energy in 2016 was produced by nuclear energy. The proportion is higher in some other countries, notably France and Slovaka. Unfortunately, producing power from atomic fission has turned out to be more expensive than previously expected.

Organic chemistry studies the structure, properties and reactions of organic compounds that contain carbon in covalent bonding.

A pharmaceuticals are drugs used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy is an important part of the medical field and relies on the science of pharmacology for continual advancement and on pharmacy for appropriate management.

Chemical change is a central concept in chemistry. The goal of chemists is to know how and why a substance changes in the presence of another substance or even by itself. Because there are tens of millions of known substances, there are a huge number of possible chemical reactions. In this chapter, we will find that many of these reactions can be classified into a small number of categories according to certain shared characteristics.

Although this works, most of the reactions occurring around us involve much larger amounts of chemicals. Even a tiny sample of a substance will contain millions, billions, or a hundred billion billions of atoms and molecules. How do we compare amounts of substances to each other in chemical terms when it is so difficult to count to a hundred billion billion? Actually, there are ways to do this, which we will explore in this chapter.

In everyday life, we commonly come in contact with water as a solid (ice), as a liquid, and as a gas (steam). Under the proper conditions of temperature and pressure, many substances—not only water—can experience the three different phases. An understanding of the phases of matter is important for our understanding of all matter. In this chapter, we will explore the three phases of matter.

Solutions are a large part of everyday life. A lot of the chemistry occurring around us happens in solution. In fact, much of the chemistry that occurs in our own bodies takes place in solution, and many solutions are important for our health. In our understanding of chemistry, we need to understand a little bit about solutions. In this chapter, you will learn about the special characteristics of solutions, how solutions are characterized, and some of their properties.

Many of us are familiar with the group of chemicals called acids. But do you know what it takes for a compound to be an acid? Actually, there are several different definitions of acid that chemistry uses, and each definition is appropriate under different circumstances. Less familiar—but just as important to chemistry and ultimately to us—is the group of chemicals known as bases. Both acids and bases are important enough that we devote an entire chapter to them—their properties and their reactio