Like Dissolves Like

When something is dissolved there is a solvent and solute. The solvent does the dissolving and the solute is being dissolved. The solute is spread out throughout the solute Water is the universal solvent.

There is a concept called "like dissolves like." Polar molecules dissolve polar molecules (and ionic molecules), while nonpolar molecules dissolve nonpolar molecules. Examples are oil and water and salt and water.

MOLES

This week we have learned about a special number called a MOLE! It is 6.02x10^23, found by Amadeo Avogadro. A mole is such a big number! From the powerpoint packet I know that it's not the mark on your face or Rufus, the naked mole rat, from Kim Possible. It is the scientist's one dozen. Using a mole you can find how many grams are in one mole by weighing one gram of something and then find the molar mass on the periodic table or if it's a molecule you have to add up all the molar masses of the atoms in the molecule and multiply it together. Then, to find how many atoms are in one mole, you multiply that by 6.02x10^23! A mole is a quite fascinating number...

Polar Bears and Penguins

This week we learned about polarity and corrected two worksheets on isomers, organic molecules, and Lewis dot structures. We worked on this comic which explained polarity and electonegativity using polar bears and penguins. Ice cream scoops represented electrons. A big block of ice was shaped like the periodic table with polar bears and penguins to represent the amount of electronegativity, so a big polar bear was in the top right corner because fluorine has the highest electronegativity and a small penguin was in the lower left corner to represent cesium, the element with the lowest electronegativity. We had to answer questions on a worksheet. The comic sort of helped me understand the concept more.

What Does That Smell Like?

Last week on Tuesday, in class, we did a lab. We had to smell vials of different compounds. Some smelled really sweet and nice, but some smelled REALLYREALLYREALLY bad, especially the ones at the end. We did the last few outside and at first I was confused at why we were going outside, but once the lid was opened I understood. I saw the bubble wrap and got excited and once it got lifted I jumped and didn't want to breathe. It was another interesting lab though =P

Bond Types

Lately we have been learning about different bond types. There are single bonds, double bonds, and sometimes even TRIPLE BONDS! I still don't really get triple bonds though...single bonds are the easiest and double bonds are pretty understandable. We've done a lot of worksheets that help us learn about bonds. What I remember most is HONC because my table name was HONC1234! I love that; it reminds me of a goose or duck! We've been doing Lewis dot structures too! those are pretty easy but it takes me a moment to think of where everything is supposed to go =P We have a lot to memorize for this unit I don't know how I'm going to do it...but somehow I will manage! Hopefully...

Citronellal

My molecule for the project is citronellal. I wanted citric acid because I like oranges and lemons and other citrus fruits, but it was taken. So, I settled with citronellal since it has to do with lemons which is close enough to citric acid. It reminds me of my lemon gum so I'm thinking there might be citronellal in my Orbit Lemon-Line gum but I'm not sure it's edible...this is the point of this project though to find out more about a certain molecule! I need to get working on this this weekend since it's due next week!

Ionic Compounds and the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Last week we learned about naming ionic compounds. There is a cation and an anion. The name of the cation, the metal, goes first and the anion, the nonmetal, goes second with the ending -ide. It also has to balance out to zero. There are two types of these compounds, Type 1 and Type 2 binary compounds. Type 1 binary compounds are your regular metals that will only have one charge and are specific. Type 2 binary compounds' cations have more than one possibility for their charge and are named by using the Roman numeral of their charge.
Also, last week we did a lab that had to do with the visible spectrum and the absorbancy of light at different wavelengths. We messed up on our data, but it was sort of fun changing the test tubes in and out of the machine. Monday we went into the library to make graphs of the data we got from the lab; 2 line graphs and a pie chart! Then we had to answer some questions that were hard, but got help on today. I'm going to miss out on doing the review games on Thursday because of LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS =D and then the test is on Friday...hopefully I'll do well =)