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Essential Things to Understand About Chemistry
1 Understand the Atomic Model of Matter and its relationship to the properties of matter.
- What are the different types of matter and how do you differentiate among them?
- How has our concept of the atom changed over time, and what evidence has been used to support these models?
- How does atomic structure relate to the placement and properties of elements on the periodic table?
- How are nuclear reactions expressed and how are they used to produce energy?
2. Understand chemical elements and compounds and how they react with each other.
- How do elements bond (including valence electron and energy changes) to form chemical compounds and how are these compounds written and named?
- What are the differences between ionic and covalent compounds?
- What are the types of chemical reactions and how are they written?
- How can atoms be counted by weighing?
- How can chemical equations be used to predict needed or desired amounts of reactants or products?
3. Understand the relationships between intermolecular forces and kinetic energy.
- How is matter affected by changes in temperature, pressure, and volume?
- How do properties of matter (e.g. solubility and states of matter) result from the interaction between kinetic energy and interparticle forces?