Unit Test

Well... this test wasn't the best. It It stunk a lot more, than all of the rest. Learning the lessons never seemed too hard, but when I was through with the test it would leave my grade scarred. My preparation prior wasn't outstanding, this would lead to a rather rough landing. Oh when I first saw the test I knew it was bad, as I could feel this collection of papers making me sad. The majority of questions that went into my brain, got lost in there and caused some real pain. This exam resulted in a big fat F, and it's not like sports where I can blame it on the ref. A look on the bright side will reveal I can't possibly do worse than that, and you are probably thinking "Well duh! You did worse than my rat!". All I can do now is move forward with time, I hope you all enjoyed my sequence of rhyme.

Molecular, Complete and net Equations

We just learned about the three steps to chemical equations. Molecular is first, complete ionic is second, and net ionic is third and last. After figuring out your final product, or net equation, you can determine who your spectators are. It was generally a nice and easy lesson that was easy to comprehend. I feel fairly confident about doing these problems.

Additional Info on the Topic



Video on the three equations

Driving Forces

Today we learned about the very important driving forces. There are four categories of driving forces which are: formation of a solid, formation of water, transfer of electrons and formation of a gas. Two compounds will react if there is at least one driving force present. We then moved on to even more crucial lessons. Double displacement reactions are the backbone of this lesson and thankfully they aren't incredibly difficult. The simple equation for them is AB + CD -----> AD + CB







Double Displacement Reactions: Examples

Double Displacement Reactions Video

Starting Chemical Reactions

We began the unit learning about chemical reactions and it wasn't too shabby. I learned what endothermic and exothermic reactions are and how to classify chemical equations into them. That was pretty important and fairly easy. We then learned about the CHO Method which is a huge concept. It is neccessary for you to understand the CHO Method because it will be used quite often. Seems like it will be a pretty good unit.


CHO Method

Endo & Exo Thermic Equations

The Big Bad Test

Phew. That was a tough one. I don't think I have ever done so much math on a science test even if I were to combine every science test I've ever taken. It was very time consuming, and nearly the entire class was still working when the bell rung. Overall, it was a pretty difficult test, but I did get a good score on the quiz so that is great. I am hoping that this test isn't a total disaster in the grade book, and that my grade stays right around where it is at. For the next test I need to prepare on doing the questions quicker and finding shortcuts to save time. For now we will just have to wait and see what the result is.

Final Lesson

Next we dove into the final lesson of this unit. It turned out to be a fairly easy one for me, I felt like I understood it pretty well. We were learning about percent composition and empirical formulas. I remember seeing empirical formulas on the pretest and wondering what in the world that was, but now I knew that it was the lowest whole number ratio of elements in a compound.  We compared and contrasted empirical formulas to molecular formulas, and I ended up taking about 3 pages of notes which is pretty crazy. Even though it was a lot to take in, I felt pretty confident that I could do these kind of problems on the test coming up, but I need to do some more practice.



% Composition Help and Practice

Percent Composition Quiz!

How to Calculate the Empirical Formula

Hydrated Compounds

Now we are moving on to some even bigger and badder problems. Finding an unknown value for hydrates in an experimental type scenario. You would be given 3 masses that were used in the experiment and you would have to use them to find the mass of the: hydrate, anhydrous salt and the water driven off. These problems tended to be longer and require more work, but I favored them as opposed to the regular mole calculations.



Practice!