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UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, JAMAICA

DIVISION OF CHEMISTRY
GROUPS: MT-1/DN-1/EH-1/SE-2/BENG-1/BUILT-1/AS-1
MODULE: GENERAL CHEMISTRY I (CHY2021)
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UNIT 1: MATTER AND MEASUREMENT
Assigned Reading: Chapt. 1 Chemistry – The Central Science, 11th edition

I MATTER
• Matter can be described simply as the ‘stuff’ that makes up all material things in the
universe. By definition, matter is anything that has mass and occupies space.
• Chemistry is the science that deals with matter and the changes it undergoes.
• Mass is a measure of quantity or amount of matter in a substance. What is weight?
• Energy is the capacity to do work or to transfer heat.

II STATES OF MATTER
• Depending on its temperature, a sample of matter can be a solid, liquid or a gas. These are
the physical states of matter.
• The states differ in some observable property.

III KINETIC PARTICLE THEORY

• A model used to explain the properties and behaviour of matter at the atomic/molecular
level. (see diagram on pg. 5). According to the theory,
Solids:
• Consists of tiny invisible particles that are tightly packed.
• Have particles that are held together by strong attractive forces and have definite volume.
• Have particles that exhibit little motion-only a slightly vibration.
Liquids:
• Consist of particles that are touching (close together) but mobile.
• The shape of a liquid depends on the container it is in but like solids, liquids have definite
volume.
Gases:
• Consists of particles that are in constant random motion.
• They travel in straight-line paths and have volume that is negligible in comparison to that of
their container.
• These gas particles exert little or no attractive/repulsive forces on each other.

If a solid is to be converted to a liquid or gas, energy has to be supplied to break the attractive
forces.
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Table 1: Properties of Solids, Liquids, and Gases

State Shape Volume Compressibility Submicroscopic Properties

Solid Definite Definite Negligible Particles touching and tightly
packed
Liquid Indefinite Definite Very little Particles touching but mobile
Gas Indefinite Indefinite High Particles far apart and independent
of one another

IV PROPERTIES OF MATTER
• Any characteristic that can be used to describe or identify matter is called a property. Some
well known properties are mass, colour melting point, boiling point, temperature, etc.
• Properties are often classified as either physical or chemical.

• Physical property – identify the substance without causing a change in its chemical
composition. Alternatively, a property that can be measured without change of identity or
composition. Examples are colour, melting and boiling points, mass, density, electrical
conductivity, atomic or ionic size, evaporation, condensation, etc.
• Chemical property – one that can be observed only when the substance changes its
chemical composition. In other words, how a substance reacts with one another (i.e.
reactivity), e.g. combustion, explosion, rusting (oxidation) of metals.

• Properties of matter can also be classified as either intensive or extensive.

Intensive – have values that do not depend on sample size. This property helps to identify
substances, e.g. colour, mp, bp, taste, odour, temperature, density, etc.
All chemical properties are intensive properties, but not vice-versa.
Extensive – have values that depend on the amount of sample present, e.g. mass, volume,
length, heat content, etc.

V PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHANGES

• Physical change – a change in the form or state of matter but not in its chemical makeup.
Examples are:
(i) dissolving sugar or salt in water. The water and the sugar or salt in this solution retain
their chemical identities and can be separated.
(ii) melting of solid ice to liquid water.

• Chemical change – a chemical reaction; a change in the composition of the substance that
takes place and a new and different substance is formed.
Examples are:
(i) Hydrogen and oxygen gases explode with a big bang when ignited, producing water.
(ii) Enzymatic digestion of food by different enzymes. Site more examples……
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VI CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
• A sample of matter can also be classified based on its chemical composition.
• Any sample of matter can be classified as either a pure substance or a mixture. A pure
substance can either be an element or a compound. See chart below.

Matter

Mixture Substance

Heterogenous Homogenous Compound Element

• (Pure) Substance – has a fixed composition. It cannot be separated or purified into other
kinds of substances by physical means, e.g. NaCl, H2O.

• Element – a substance that is comprised of only one type of atom. It cannot be chemically
broken down into different, simpler substances, e.g. periodic table of elements.

• Compound – a substance composed of two or more different elements chemically

combined or any pure substance that can be broken down by chemical means into two or
more different, simpler substances, e.g. NH3, H2O, glucose.

• Mixture – formed when two or more substances are mixed together in some random
proportion without chemically changing the individual substances in the process, e.g. sugar
in water, rain in bread, coke, fruit juices, etc.

VII LAWS OF CONSERVATION

• Law of conservation of Mass – mass is neither created nor destroyed; the total mass of the
substances involved in a physical or chemical change remains constant:
Eg: Iron + oxygen iron oxide

M1 + M2 = M3
During the rusting of iron, the initial mass of iron plus the mass of oxygen it combines with
produces a mass of iron oxide (rust) equal to the sum of masses of iron and oxygen consumed.

• Law of conservation of Energy – energy can neither be created nor destroyed in a chemical
process or physical change. It can only be converted from one form to another.

• Energy is the capacity or ability to do work or to transfer heat. We are familiar with: light
energy, electrical energy, heat energy, mechanical and chemical energy.
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• Anytime a chemical reaction takes place, there is also a change in energy. Either energy is
released by the reaction – exothermic reaction (e.g. metabolism), or energy is required
continually to keep the reaction going – endothermic (photosynthesis).

• When water falls at a hydroelectric power station, mechanical energy is converted to

electrical energy.
Think!!! – How is energy conserved when a car’s headlight is turned on (trace the energy
flow)?

VIII MEASUREMENTS IN CHEMISTRY

• Chemistry is an experimental science. But if experiments are to be reproducible, we must be
able to describe fully the substances we are working with – their amounts, volumes, mass,
etc.
• It is important that the numbers we report for quantities such as mass and length have the
same meaning for everyone. Scientists worldwide use the SI units (Système International
d’Unités) of measurements.
• There are seven fundamental units (page 14 in text), along with others derived from them.
We will be mostly concerned with those for mass, length, temperature, volume and so on.
• Sometimes SI units are inconveniently too large for a computation/job at hand. For example
the volume of a cough syrup is tbsp., expressed in m3 would be too large a unit, but the
distance of the earth to the sun (150,000,000,000 m) would find the metre to be too small a
unit.
• For this reason, prefixes are used (Table 1.5). Some common ones are:
micro- for one millionth (10-6)
milli-for one thousandth (10-3)
centi- for one hundredth (10-2)
kilo- for one thousand (103)
mega- for one million (106)

Unit Conversions
• The simplest way to carry out calculations that involve different units is to use dimensional-
analysis. Here, a conversion factor is used. Its use may be painstaking at first but proves to
be worthwhile in the end.

Let’s look at a few examples:

1. Covert 138 lb into kilograms (kg)
2. Convert 4580 cm to nanometers (nm)
3. Convert 200 m3 to cm3 and to liters (dm3)
4. What is the density in g/cm3 for a substance whose density is 1483 kg/m3?
5. A bus travels at 120 km/h on a highway. Convert this speed to m/s
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Equation: Original quantity × Conversion factor = Equivalent quantity

Key – units are treated like numbers and thus can be multiplied or divided. The conversion
factor is equivalent to multiplying the original quantity by 1 (one).

IX SIGNIFICANT FIGURES IN MEASUREMENTS

• The number of significant figures in a measured quantity is all the certain digits plus the
first uncertain one. Uncertainty is always associated with measured quantities.
• Significant figures do not apply to exact numbers (page 22). Example, merely multiplying a
measured number by a factor e.g. 5. 5 is an exact number and significant figures would not
be applied to 5.
• There are five rules to guide you (see pages 22 – 23).
• How many significant figures are in the following numbers?
(a) 0.036 653 m
(b) 7.2100 × 10-3 g
(c) 72100 km
(d) 76.600 kg
(e) 0.003 00 mL
(f) $ 25.03

Significant Figures in Calculations

• How do you determine how many significant figures to keep and how many to ignore in a
calculation? Most of the time, two easy-to-remember rules will suffice.
• Suppose you walk 1.5 km in 16.8 minutes, what is your speed? The answer on a pocket
calculator is 0.08928571428 km/min. But how precise is your answer?
• In carrying out a multiplication or division, the answer can’t have more significant figures
than either of the original numbers. The answer above is thus 0.089 km/min.
• In carrying out an addition or subtraction, the answer can’t have more digits to the right of
the decimal point than either of the original numbers. Thus 3.18 L of water plus another
0.013 15 L gives 3.19.

Bear in mind that these rules apply to calculations in subsequent units as well as in other
calculation courses such as your laboratory experiments and physical chemistry.

• Practice as many QUESTIONS as possible at the end of chapter 1.