SOME BASIC CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY

Matter is anything that has mass and occupies volume.

Matter can be classified in the following two ways:

[A] Physical classification of matter –
(i) solid state – Matter is said to be in solid state when it has a definite shape
and possesses a definite volume. In this state, the molecules are closely packed.
The have no freedom to move and can simply vibrate along their axes.
(ii) liquid state – The state in which the matter has a definite volume but not a
definite shape is called the liquid state. In this state, the intermolecular distance
is more as compared to solids and molecules can freely move within the
boundary of the liquid.
(iii) gaseous state – When the matter possesses neither a definite shape nor a
definite volume it is said to be in the gaseous state. In this state, molecules are
perfectly free to move anywhere. Since in a gas, intermolecular distance is quite
large, it can easily be compressed by aping pressure on it.

[B] Chemical classification of matter –

(i) Element: A pure substance which can neither be decomposed, nor can be
synthesized from simpler substance by ordinary physical or chemical methods.
A pure substance is that substance which contain only one type of substance.

Elements can be further classified into following categories:

(a) Metals – Metal are those solid (except mercury) elements which possess a
characteristic lusture (shining), moderate hardness (can be pressed into
sheets), ductility (can be drawn into wires) and are good conductors of heat and
electricity. Copper, silver, gold, zinc, iron, aluminum etc., are some examples.
(b) Non – Metal – These elements usually do not possess shine and are
generally brittle (hard but liable to break easily). These are either poor
conductors or non – conductors of heat and electricity. All gas like oxygen,
nitrogen, etc., and solid like carbon, phosphorus, etc., are non-metals.
(c) Metalloids – The element which possess properties characteristic to both
metal and non-metal are called metalloid. Germanium, arsenic, selenium, etc.,
are some examples.
(ii) Compounds: A compound may be defined as the substance obtained by the
chemical combination of two or more elements in a definite proportion by mass
and can be decomposed by chemical means into its constituent element.

The compound may further be classified into following categories:

(a) Inorganic compounds – The compound obtained from non-living sources,
e.g., sea water, earth curst, rocks, etc., are called inorganic compounds. These
are of non – organic nature and are the compounds of all elements (except those
compounds of carbon which are of organic nature). Water ( H 2 O ), potassium
sulphate ( K 2 S O 4), nitric acid ( HN O3 ), sodium nitrate ( NaN O3 ), etc.,
(b) organic compound – These are the compound of carbon and have organic
nature. These are mostly obtained from living sources like plants and animals.
Sugar, fats, urea, oils, proteins, waxes, hydrocarbons, benzene, etc.

(iii) Mixture: When two or more element or compounds are mixed in any
arbitrary ratio in such a way that the components do not lose their identity, then
the combination thus obtained is called a mixture.
Mixture can be further be classified into following two categories:
(a) Homogeneous mixtures: when the components of a mixture are distributed
uniformly throughout the sample, i.e., all components are in the same ratio in all
parts of it, it is said to be a homogeneous mixture.
(b) Heterogeneous mixture: The mixtures in which components are not
distributed uniformly are called heterogeneous mixtures. Such mixtures possess
different compositions in their different parts.

 Differences between Compounds and Mixtures;

Compounds
1. In a compound, two or more elements are combined chemically.
2. In a compound, the elements are present in the fixed ratio by mass. This ratio
cannot change.
3. Compounds are always homogeneous i.e., they have the same composition
throughout.
4 In a compound, constituents cannot be separated by physical methods
5. In a compound, the constituents lose their identities i.e., i compound does not
show the characteristics of the constituting elements.

Mixtures
1. In a mixture, or more elements or compounds are simply mixed and not
combined chemically.
2. In a mixture the constituents are not present in fixed ratio. It can vary
3. Mixtures may be either homogeneous or heterogeneous in nature.
4. Constituents of mixtures can be separated by physical methods.
5, In a mixture, the constituents do not lose their identities i.e., a mixture shows
the characteristics of all the constituents.

PROPERTIES OF MATTER AND THEIR MEASUREMENT

(i) Physical properties: are those properties which can be measured without
altering the identity or composition of the substance.
(ii) Chemical properties: are those properties which require a chemical change
and involve a change in the chemical composition of the substance.
A measurement is meaningful only when it is expressed in terms of a fixed
standard called Unit.
The general conference of weights and measures adopted the international
system of unites in 1960. This system is popularly known as SI system or SI
units.

Units of Measurement

Fundamental Units: The quantities mass, length and time are called

fundamental quantities and their units are known as fundamental units. There
are seven basic units of measurement for the quantities: length, mass, time,
temperature, amount of substance, electric current and luminous intensity.
SI - System: This system of measurement is the most common system
employed throughout the world. It has given units of all the seven basic
quantities listed above.

• Definitions of Basic SI Units

1. Metre: It is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time
interval of 1/299792458 of a second.

2. Kilogram: It is the unit of mass. It is equal to the mass of the international

prototype
of the kilogram.

3. Second: It is the duration of 9192631, 770 periods of radiation which

correspond to the transition between the two hyper fine levels of the ground
state of caesium- 133 atom.

4. Kelvin: It is the unit of thermodynamic temperature and is equal to 1/273.16

of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water.

5. Ampere: The ampere is that constant current which if maintained in two

straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross section
and placed, 1 metre apart in vacuum, would produce between these conductors
a force equal to 2 x 10-7 N per metre of length.

6. Candela: It may be defined as the luminous intensity in a given direction,

from a source which emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 x 1012 Hz
and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/ 683 watt per steradian.

7. Mole: It is the amount of substance which contains as many elementary

entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon -12. Its symbol is ‘mol’.

• Mass and Weight

Mass: Mass of a substance is the amount of matter present in it.

The mass of a substance is constant. And can be determined accurately in the
laboratory by using an analytical balance. SI unit of mass is kilogram.

Weight: It is the force exerted by gravity on an object. Weight of substance may

vary from one place to another due to change in gravity.

Volume: Volume means the space occupied by matter. It has the units of
(length)3. In SI units, volume is expressed in metre3 (m3). However, a popular
unit of measuring volume, particularly in liquids is litre (L) but it is not in SI units
or an S.I. unit.
Mathematically,
1L = 1000 mL = 1000 cm3 = 1dm3.
Volume of liquids can be measured by different devices like burette, pipette,
cylinder, measuring flask etc.

Temperature: There are three scales in which temperature can be measured.

These are known as Celsius scale (°C), Fahrenheit scale (°F) and Kelvin scale
(K).
Thermometer with Celsius scale are calibrated from 0°C to 100°C.
Thermometer with Fahrenheit scale are calibrated from 32°F to 212°F.
Kelvin’s scale of temperature is S.I. scale and is very common these days.
Temperature on this scale is shown by the sign K.

The temperature on two scales are related to each other by the relationship

Density: Density of a substance is its amount of mass per unit volume. So, SI
unit of density can be obtained as follows:

This unit is quite large and a chemist often expresses density in g cm 3 where
mass is expressed in gram and volume is expressed in cm 3.

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES AND PRECISION

[A] Discrete variable: The quantities which can be measured (counted) with
certainly are called discrete variable.
[B] Continuous variables: The physical quantities involving uncertainty in their
measurement are called continuous variables.
[C] Accuracy: The accuracy of a measurement indicates the extent to which an
experimentally measured value is close to the true value.
Accuracy = Mean experimental value – True value

Accuracy represents the correctness of the measurement. It is expressed in

terms of absolute error and relative error and can be determined by a single
measurement. High accuracy implies a smaller error.
[D] Precision: Precision refers to the closeness of multiple readings of the same
quantity.
Precision represents the agreement between two or more measured values. It is
expressed in terms of absolute deviation and relative deviation. Several
measurements are required to determine precision. High precision implies the
reproducibility of the readings.
[D] significant figures: The number of digits in a measurement about which
we are certain, plus one additional digit, the first one about which we are not
certain is known as significant figures or significant digits.
The larger the number of significant figures obtained in a measurement, the
greater is the accuracy of the measurement. The reverse is also true. If one uses
the instrument of smaller least count, the number of significant digits increases.
[E] Rules for determining significant figures:

(i) All the non-zero digits are significant:

For Example;
216.456 has six significant figures
(ii) The zeros placed to the left of the first non – zero digit in the given
physical quantity are not significant figures;
For Example;
0.00325 has three significant figures
(iii) The zeros placed to the right of the decimal point are significant;
For Example;
15.550 has five significant figures
(iv) the zeros placed between two non – zero digits significant;
For Example;
1.0079 has five significant figures
[F] Exponential Notation: In order to avoid uncertainty, very