Chapter 1

Introduction to Chemistry

What is chemistry for Engineering?

Chemistry is the center of all science, it deals with the basic principles that are needed in engineering subjects.
The connection of engineering to chemistry is to manipulate and build something that identifies chemicals and
processes engineering students are dealing with.

1.1 Aluminum

If you are thirsty, you might ask yourself several questions about what to drink. But you probably wouldn’t ask,
“Where did the can that holds this soda come from, and why is it made of aluminum?” The aluminum can has
become so common that it’s easy to take for granted. What makes aluminum an attractive material for this type
of application, and how did it become such a familiar part of life?
Compared with most other metals, aluminum is light but fairly strong. So a typical aluminum can is much lighter
than a comparable tin or steel can.This means that the can does not add much weight compared to the soda
itself, so the cans are easier to handle and cheaper to ship.The widespread availability of aluminum results
from an impressive collaboration between the basic science of chemistry and the applied sciences of
engineering. Ultimately, the role of engineering in this cycle is to maximize the efficiency with which materials
are extracted and minimize the amount of waste that is returned

1.2 The Study of Chemistry

Chemistry has been called the “central science” because it is important to so many other fields of scientific
study. So, even if you have never taken a chemistry course, chances are good that you have seen some
chemistry before.This coherent picture involves three levels of understanding or perspectives on the nature of
chemistry: macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic. By the end of this course, you should be able to switch
among these perspectives to look at problems involving chemistry in several ways.

Macroscopic Perspective
- Can be seen by the naked eye
- Matter is anything that has a mass and can be observed

Types of changes to observe in matter:

❖ Physical Properties - substances involved in a physical change do not lose their chemical identities.
Familiar examples of physical properties also include color, viscosity, hardness, and temperature. Some
other physical properties, which will be defined later, include heat capacity, boiling point, melting point,
and volatility
❖ Physical matter - variable that we can measure without changing the identity.
❖ Density - ratio of mass to volume. d = M/V

❖ Chemical Properties - associated with the types of chemical changes that a substance undergoes. For
example, some materials burn readily, whereas others do not.
➢ Combustion - a chemical reaction of burning oxygen.
➢ Corrosion - degradation of metals in the presence of air and moisture.
➢ Malleability - measure of material's ability to be rolled or hammered.

When we observe chemical reactions macroscopically, we encounter three common states, or phases, of
matter: solids, liquids, and gases. At the macroscopic level, solids are hard and do not change their shapes
easily. When a solid is placed in a container, it retains its own shape rather than assuming that of the container.
Liquids can be distinguished from solids macroscopically because unlike solids, liquids adapt to the shape of
the container in which they are held. They may not fill the entire volume, but the portion they do occupy has its
shape defined by the container. Finally, gases can be distinguished macroscopically from both liquids and
solids primarily because a gas expands to occupy the entire volume of its container. Although many gases are
colorless and thus invisible.

Microscopic or Particulate Perspective

- The most fundamental tenet of chemistry is that all matter is composed of atoms and molecules. This is
why chemists tend to think of everything as “a chemical” of one sort or another.

❖ Elements - all matter comprises a limited number of building blocks, often associated with the periodic
table of elements.
❖ Atoms - unimaginably small particles that cannot be made any smaller and behave as a chemical
system.
❖ Molecules - groups of atoms held together so that they form a unit where identity is different from atoms
alone. Ultimately, chemical bonds are responsible for holding atoms together in molecules.

Symbolic Representation
- The third way that chemists perceive their subject is to use symbols to represent the atoms, molecules,
and reactions that make up science.s. For now, we simply note that this symbolic level of understanding
is very important because it provides a way to discuss some of the most abstract parts of chemistry. We
need to think about atoms and molecules, and the symbolic representation provides a convenient way
to keep track of these particles we’ll never actually see. These symbols will be one of the key ways that
we interact with ideas at the particulate level.
For example:

1.3 The Science of Chemistry: Observation and Models

Chemistry
- empirical science
- base on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than logic or theory.

Observation in Science
Made in a wide variety of ways for a wide variety of reasons. In some cases, the observations are made
because materials with certain properties are needed. Observations of nature involve some level of uncertainty
in most cases.

To establish the types of uncertainty, there are ways to observe:

❖ Accuracy - how close the observed value is the true value.
example: You measured the weight of a given substance. The weight measurements of the substance
is 9.98 kg but the standard or actual weight is 10kg. This means that the accuracy of your
measurement is close.
● Precision - spread in values obtained from measurement.
example: Given the example above, if you weigh the substance three times getting the same
measurement of 9.98 then your precision is correct.

Characteristics of Error
● Random Error - associated with limitation of equipment.
● Systematic Error - associated with the existence of some unknown bias in the measurement apparatus,
also called as “impurities”.

Interpreting Observations
Why do experts need to interpret observations?
 - Experts do not provide direct info about questions asked, we must infer and deduce or conclude
from the data to form a conclusion. In this matter, we have two types of reasoning: Inductive and
Deductive Reasoning.

Inductive Reasoning
- is a series of specific observations and attempts to generalize to more universal conclusions. We have
asserted that all gases expand to occupy the full volumes of their containers. This universal conclusion
was first drawn by inductive reasoning based on observations of many different gases under many
different conditions.

Deductive Reasoning
- takes two or more statements or assertions and combines them to form a clear and irrefutable
conclusion or statement. This process can be summarized as an “If A and B, then C” approach that is
studied in detail in formal courses in logic.

Models in Science
- Used in organizing vast amounts of info.
- Largely an empirical description.
- A physical and/or mathematical conceptual representation of a system of ideas and events.

1.4 Numbers and Measurements in Chemistry

Units
- Internationalizing of science and engineering led to the establishment of a standard.
- System that provides the needed flexibility to handle an array of observations.

International System Of Units (Système International d'Unités)

- Defined as units.
- Combination of base units with a set of prefixes that designated powers of ten.
- This allows us to report and understand quantities of any size, as illustrated in Figure 1.8.

Points that an be used to calibrate temperature with the use of a thermometer:

1. Fahrenheit Scale - the familiar Fahrenheit scale originally chose body temperature as one reference
and set it at 100°F.
2. Celsius Scale - developed in a similar way, but with the freezing point of pure water set at 0°C and the
boiling point of water at 100°C.
Figure 1.9 shows the relationship between these scales. Conversions between the two scales are given by the
following expressions:
°F = (1.8 × °C) + 32 (1.1)
°C = (°F − 32) /1.8 (1.2)

Note: Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit invented the alcohol thermometer in 1709 and the mercury thermometer in
1714.

Numbers and Significant Figures

Scientific Notation
- Numbers written using scientific notation factor out of all powers of ten and write them separately.
Example:
❖ 54,000 is written as 5.4 x 10^4
❖ 10^−x is identical to 1/10x
❖ 0.000042 is 4.2 × 10^−5

Significant Figures
- Used to indicate the amount of information that is relatable when discussing a measurement.

A zero is significant when it is the final digit after a decimal place or when it is between other significant digits.
Thus the zeros in both 4.30 mL and 304.2 kg are significant. When numbers are written properly in scientific
notation, all of the digits provided are significant.