What you need to know

Dartmouth's Department of Chemistry offers two separate sequences in general chemistry. A majority of our
students are enrolled in Chemistry 5-6. In addition, there is a fall-term honors section, Chemistry 10, available
only to especially well-prepared First Year students.

Each year we enroll quite a number of students who have not had high school chemistry or who feel that their
high school chemistry backgrounds are weak. It is most certainly possible for such students to do well in
general chemistry at Dartmouth. However, many of them find it helpful to study and review in preparation for
the course. This page will tell you what you need to learn or review to be off to a flying start in general
chemistry.

A Self Test
If you would like to try a few real-world problems to measure your preparation and skills in the fundamental
areas discussed in more detail below, please feel free to download the Chemistry 5 Self Test (a 3-page pdf file).
This test (which carries neither credit nor penalty) is entirely for your private use. It has ten straighforward
problems spread across the topics listed below. Work your way through it at your own pace, but try to solve
each problem without consulting any other reference. Once you have come up with your best answers to these
problems (or have decided that you cannot work one or more problems on your own), then, and only then, you
should download the 9-page pdf Self Test Solutions, which gives fairly detailed, step-by-step answers to each of
these problems. The page on this site titledDimensional Analysis and Units will also provide some review on
those topics, and your course text probably has helpful sections as well.

There is no "passing or failing grade" on this test. Rather, it is meant to show you what areas you may need to
review, study in more depth, or continue to practice.

The Important Basic Topics

Listed below are some of the more important topics that you should be familiar with. You may, of course, review
or study as much as you like, but you are encouraged to concentrate on and become familiar with the following
topics:

1. Metric System. Be familiar with the units of mass, length, and volume in the metric system. A separate
page covers this important topic.

2. Temperature Scales. Be familiar with the Celsius (centigrade) and the kelvin (absolute) temperature scales.

3. Symbols of the Elements. You should be familiar with the symbols for elements with atomic numbers 1-38,
46-56, and 78-83. The symbols are usually abbreviations of either the English or Latin name of the element.
Although you will have a periodic table for all exams, the more familiar you are with the symbols, the better off
you will be.

4. Chemical Formulas. You should become familiar with the way in which the symbols of elements are
combined to give chemical formulas for neutral (uncharged) molecules and positive or negative ions, such as
SiCl4, CaF2, SO4-2, etc.

5. Chemical Equations. You should understand how chemical formulas are combined to give chemical
equations, which describe chemical changes.
6. Atomic Structure. You should have at least a rough idea of the structure of the atom. Be aware that
the nucleus, composed of protons and neutrons, is the massive (but tiny) positively charged central core of the
atom. It is surrounded by one or more negatively charged electrons which occupy most of the volume of the
atom but contribute only a tiny fraction of its mass. You should also know what isotopes are.

7. Weight Relationships. You should know what atomic number, atomic mass number, atomic weight,
formula weight, and molecular weight mean. Understand what gram atomic weight, gram formula weight, and
gram molecular weight mean. Know what is meant by a mole of a substance, and understand the relationship
between the mole and Avogadro's constant.

8. Concepts from Physics. Have some notion of the meaning of force and energy and the units in which they
are measured in the Standard International (SI) system of units. Pressure is a measure of force per unit area;
common units of pressure are pascal (Pa), atmosphere (atm), and torr (Torr).

9. Concentrations. Know some common ways of expressing concentration, such as weight percent and moles
of solute per liter of solution (molarity).

Review these topics, and check out the page covering Dimensional Analysis and Units.

A review of certain topics in high school mathematics will also be valuable to any student in college chemistry.
Listed below are some of the topics with which you should be quite comfortable. The last two, numbers 6 and 7,
apply more to Chem 6 than Chem 5.

1. Calculators. You must have a calculator and know how to use it for multiplication, division, taking square
roots, finding logarithms and antilogarithms (both base-10 and natural, or base-e, logs), and using exponential
notation.

2. Exponential Notation. Be thoroughly familiar with exponents, and be able to multiply, divide, raise to
powers, and take roots of numbers with exponents. Understand the relationship between exponents and
logarithms, and be able to work with logarithms, both base 10 and base e. Know the SI prefixes for common
multiples of powers of 10, such as "m" for "milli-" or "k" for "kilo-" and so forth.

3. Linear Equations. Be able to recognize an equation for a straight line, and know how to recognize the line's
slope and intercept in the equation.

4. Algebra. Be able to solve a system of two simultaneous linear equations in two unknowns.

5. More Algebra. Be able to solve a quadratic equation.

6. Trigonometry. Be familiar with angles measured in radians as well as in degrees, and understand and be
able to work with the basic trigonometric functions: sine, cosine, and tangent.

7. Coordinate Systems. Be familiar with polar coordinate systems in two and three dimensions as well as the
common Cartesian (x,y) coordinate system.

Many of the definitions and concepts mentioned above will be reviewed quickly during the initial weeks of
Chemistry 5. However, it will be to your advantage to have seen such material and thought about it in advance.
You will also find most of these topics are included in the first chapters or appendices of your textbook. If you
find that the text selected for your course assumes too much previous knowledge, try reading another textbook.
 Instructors generally make a variety of books available at the reserve desk at Kresge Library, and you may find
one that is more clear to you, especially if you have not previously studied chemistry at this depth before.

Chemistry For Dummies

From Chemistry For Dummies, 2nd Edition by John T. Moore

During the first year of high school chemistry or the first semester of college chemistry, all the terms, units
of measurement, and atoms, molecules, elements, and compounds may seem a bit overwhelming. The
good news: Your Chem I class doesn't have to be torture. This handy Cheat Sheet provides some basic
information you can refer to regularly to make your chemistry class just a tiny bit easier.
Chemical Bonding Basics
In bonding, atoms lose, gain, or share electrons in order to have the same number of electrons as the
noble gas that's nearest on the periodic table. Ionic, covalent, and metallic bonds are formed by
combinations of metals and nonmetals.
 Metal + nonmetal = ionic bond

 Nonmetal + nonmetal = covalent bond

 Metal + metal = metallic bond

When two elements engage in ionic bonding, one or more electrons are transferred from the metal to the
nonmetal, forming ions (charged atoms). The metal, having lost one or more electrons, forms a cation, an
ion with a positive charge; the nonmetal, having gained one or more electrons, becomes ananion, an ion
with a negative charge.

When two elements form a covalent bond, one or more electron pairs are shared between these two
elements. In metallic bonding, which occurs in metals (either a pure metal or an alloy of two or more
metals), the valence (outer shell) electrons are donated to a "sea of electrons."
Chemistry Concepts: Energy Levels and Orbitals
A lot of chemistry is explained by the sharing and trading of electrons between atoms. Understanding how
electrons are arranged in an atom is a building block of Chem I.

Electrons in an atom are contained in specific energy levels (1, 2, 3, and so on) that are different distances
from the nucleus. The larger the number of the energy level, the farther it is from the nucleus. Electrons
that are in the highest energy level are called valence electrons. Within each energy level is a volume of
space where specific electrons are likely to be located. These spaces, called orbitals, are of different
shapes, denoted by a letter (s, p, d, f, g). (In most cases, only the electrons contained in the s and p
orbitals are considered valence electrons.) Electrons seek the lowest energy level possible.

The following electron-filling pattern indicates how the electrons fill into the energy levels. Knowing this
pattern is useful in many aspects of chemistry, including predicting the bonding situation of a particular
atom and in the prediction of the geometry of a covalent compound.

Electron filling pattern: 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, 3d, 4p, 5s, 4d, 5p, 6s, 4f, 5d, 6p, 7s, 5f
 Digging the Mole Concept in Chemistry
The mole (abbreviate mol and sometimes called Avogadro's number) is a conversion number that allows a
chemist or chemistry student to move from the microscopic world of atoms, ions, and molecules to the
macroscopic world of grams, kilograms, and tons. The mole is used in reaction stoichiometry to predict
how much product can be made from a certain amount of reactant or how much reactant is required to
produce a certain amount of product.

If you know the particles, moles, or grams of a substance, you can calculate the other two measurements
by using the following equation:

1 mole = 6.022 × 1023 particles/mol = formula weight expressed in grams

Identifying Isotopes through Representations
In Chem I, you may have to identify isotopes, which are atoms of the same element that have different
numbers of neutrons. The following representation allows you to identify a specific isotope of an element. It
is used extensively in balancing nuclear reactions.

X = element symbol

Z = atomic number (number of protons)

A = mass number (number of protons + number of neutrons)

Common Measurement Conversions for Chemistry
In order to succeed in your Chem I class, you need to have a firm understanding of basic chemistry
measurements and how to convert them from one measurement to another. Following are some important
conversions of temperature, size, and pressure as well as metric prefixes to memorize for your chemistry
class:

Temperature conversions:

 °F = 9/5(°C) + 32

 °C = 5/9(°F – 32)

 K = °C + 273

English/metric conversions:

 1 in = 2.54 cm

 1 lb = 454 g

 1 qt = 0.946 L

Pressure conversion:

 1atm = 760 mmHg = 760 torr

 Common metric prefixes:

 milli- = 0.001

 centi- = 0.01

 kilo- = 1,000
The Basic Chemistry of Acids and Bases
A lot of chemistry requires you to understand the difference between acids and bases. An acid is a
substance that donates an H+ ion to another chemical species called a base. A base is a substance that
accepts (combines with) an H+ ion.

If you need to know the concentration of the H+ ion in solution, you can do so by representing the
H+ molarity, [H+]. Another way to represent the H+concentration is the pH, which is the negative logarithm of
the H+ molarity. The following equation shows this mathematical relationship as well as the way to calculate
the H+ molarity given the pH:

pH = –log[H+]; [H+] = 10–pH

 pH = 7 is neutral.

 pH less than 7 is acidic.

 pH greater than 7 is basic.

The Combined Gas Law and Ideal Gas Law
When studying the properties of gases, you need to know the relationships between the variables of
volume (V), pressure (P), Kelvin temperature (T), and the amount in moles (n) so that you can calculate
missing information (P, V, T, or n) and solve reaction stoichiometry problems. Although the pairs of
variables have individual relationships, the two most important and useful gas laws are the combined gas
law and the ideal gas law:
Combined gas law (P1V1)/T1 = (P2V2)/T2 (T must be in Kelvin)

Ideal gas law PV = nRT (R = 0.0821 L atm/K.mol)