Web site issues?

There is a summer assignment for both AP and IB Chemistry for next year.  In fact, the assignments are almost the same - mainly reviewing material and getting your mind thinking about this stuff before we hit the ground running in August.  To access the assignments, since they haven't been updated to the school web site yet, please click here for the AP assignment or click here for the IB assignment.  Have a great summer, all.

Converting Densities

I'm looking over the summer work submissions, and it appears the one giving people the most trouble is #24, converting densities.  They are tricky, mainly because you often have to deal with cubed units (for volume).  A good working of a problem like the ones you see online is here.  Just remember that you have to multiply a cubed unit by a conversion factor three times (or cube the factor) in order to cancel it.

Comments?  Other questions?

Happy Birthday, Avogadro!

Holy Mole-y! Today is Amadeo Avogadro's birthday - 234 years young!  I'd recommend celebrating with a toast of a mole of water (only 18 mL) rather than blowing out 234 candles.  You can also see more about Mr. Avogadro at http://chemistry.about.com/b/2010/08/09/this-day-in-science-history-august-9-amedeo-avogadro.htm

To Err Is... Smart!

There's an interesting (and long) article at http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/06/13/the_bright_side_of_wrong/about how inductive reasoning - seeing patterns, putting things together - both makes humans smart and makes us prone to errors. A good concept to have in mind thinking about a challenging Junior or Senior year making sense of chemistry and other good stuff. A quote for you from the 4-page article:

As ashamed as we may feel of our mistakes, they are not a byproduct of all that's worst about being human. On the contrary: They're a byproduct of all that's best about us. We don't get things wrong because we are uninformed and lazy and stupid and evil. We get things wrong because we get things right. The more scientists understand about cognitive functioning, the more it becomes clear that our capacity to err is utterly inextricable from what makes the human brain so swift, adaptable, and intelligent.

IB Chemistry Summer Assignment Clarification

The assignments posted for last years' AP Chemistry class are essentially the same as yours for IB next year.  I had only briefly looked at the summer assignments page a couple weeks ago and thought it had been updated, but not it's just not so.  Scroll down to find the most updated information on your assignment, including a google docs link to printable versions of everything.  Please send me an email soon, so you can be an author of this blog and post questions or interesting stuff (related to Chemistry, please).  I'll occasionally post stuff that I come across and announcements here, too.  I'm looking forward to the emails rolling in!

We don't know everything yet...

Interesting article about determining the correct structure of a molecule invovled in tuberculosis infection: http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemScience/Volume/2010/07/edaxadiene.asp
It seems so obvious when you see the structure drawn out, but how you get an organic molecule's structure is one of the things we'll look at next year.

Google Docs - assignment sheet and "Suff I Should Know"!

Click to see the assignment and the Stuff you should know, formatted nicely and printable:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B-Q4wLLg8b1JOWViMTFjMTUtMjc1ZC00ZjI5LWFkODMtZDgxYjg0OThiMjhm&hl=en