Dr. Stephen Lukacs (January 2013)
This lecture series of PodCasts covers chemical reactions and it is the central theme of all chemistry. The lecture is broken down into PodCasts about reactions and balancing reactions, molar mass and molecular weight, moles, and chemical ratios through reaction stoichiometry.
(January 2013) Reactions are the conversion of reactants or starting materials into final products. Balancing reactions ensure that whatever quantities enter the reaction process also exit. Just like cooking or mixing drinks, all things have a proper proportion and balancing reactions are simply those proper proportions to the natural mixture of atoms and molecules.
Practicing balancing reactions requires time, patience, and clear thought. So get cracking on this necessary tool.
(January 2013) Weighing the mass of reactants or products based on the molecular formula is an important first step to knowing the amount of the substance in moles.
Be sure the carefully watch how the significant figures are calculated, using both the multiplication/division rule and then the addition/subtraction rule.
(January 2013) Moles are simply an amount of any substance. Moles are also the common ground and currency of reactants and products through balanced reactions and stoichiometry.
Now with a complete understanding of moles, you can safely move onto stoichiometry, the center of mass for chemical reactions.
(January 2013) Stoichiometry is simply the ratios of reactants and products in the balanced reaction. But those ratios can be extended to include very complex multi-step chemical conversions to answer very practical quantitative problems.
As you can see from this podcast, the mastery of some very important concepts and practices come into complete focus in this podcast, including, scientific number and notation, significant figures, conversions, density, stable molecular formulas and compounds, balancing reactions, molar mass and molecular weights, and moles.
(December 2014) This writeup overviews the four steps to writing and using proper chemical reactions.
(December 2014) The mole is the primary currency of chemical reactions. The trick to remember, is that the mole is just an amount, like gallons or pounds.
(December 2014) This writeup discusses the amount of carbon dioxide and monoxide thrown into the air from a single tank of gas. The result will surprise you.
(January 2013) Over 99% of all reactions occur in solution. Your very existence is the effect of billions of reactions happening every second in the bag of mostly water you call your body.
This podcast also demonstrates the calculations and procedure to create a proper solution in the laboratory.