Essential Background

for general chemistry

chem1 virtual textbook

a reference text for General Chemistry

Stephen Lower

Simon Fraser University

The Chem1 Virtual Textbook is a resource for General Chemistry aimed mainly at the first-year university level.
It offers a more comprehensive, organized, and measured approach than is found in most standard textbooks. It should also be accessible to advanced high-school courses, and helpful as review material for students in more advanced courses in chemistry, biology, geology, and engineering.

To access the desired page, click one of the lesson titles immediately below; you can also go directly to any sub-section within a lesson by clicking on a smaller heading.

1- Classification and properties of matter

- Observable properties of matter
- Extensive and Intensive properties
- How do we classify matter?
- Separating homogeneous mixtures
- Physical and chemical properties

2- Density and its uses

- Density and specific gravity: what's the difference?
- Densities of various kinds of matter
- Understanding buoyancy
- How do we measure densities?
- Some applications of density

3- Energy, heat, and temperature

- Energy: what is it? Thermal and chemical energy
- Heat and work: what's the difference?
- Temperature and its meaning
- Heat capacity and specific heat

4- The measure of matter

- Measuring scales and units
- The SI unit system
- Units outside the SI
- Units and their ranges in Chemistry

5- The meaning of measure

- Uncertainty is certain!
- Accuracy and precision: what's the difference?
- Replicate measurements and scatter
- Absolute and relative uncertainty
- Propagation of error in calculations

6- Significant figures and rounding

- Digits: significant and otherwise
- Implied uncertainty and rounding error
- Rules for rounding
- Rounding in calculations