Physical Chemistry 3 min read
First electron affinity and reactivity
Gases such as helium, neon and argon are so unreactive that we Krypton, xenon and radon will form a very…
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Physical Chemistry 3 min read
Electron affinity
Lightning is one of the more impressive manifestations of the power in nature: the sky lights up with a brilliant…
Physical Chemistry 3 min read
Properties of covalent compounds
Clear petroleum gel is a common product, comprising a mixture of simple hydrocarbons, principally n-octadecane (III). It is not quite…
Physical Chemistry 2 min read
Covalent bonds and valence
The water molecule always has a composition in which two hydrogen atoms combine with one oxygen. Why? The Lewis structure…
Physical Chemistry 3 min read
Breaking bonds requires an input of energy
A plant accumulates nutrients from the soil as it grows. Such accumulation depletes the amount of nutrient remaining in the…
Physical Chemistry 2 min read
Hydrogen bonds
DNA is a natural polymer. It was first isolated in 1869 by Meischer, but its role in determining heredity remained…
Physical Chemistry 4 min read
Elastic and inelastic collisions
In the previous example, we looked at the interactions induced when changing the external pressure, forcing the molecules into close…
Physical Chemistry 3 min read
How is ammonia liquefied?
Compressing ammonia gas under high pressure forces the molecules into close We sometimes call a solid or a liquid a…
Physical Chemistry 2 min read
The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution of energies
If no heat was distributed, then our faces and those parts closest to the fire We often see this relationship…
Physical Chemistry 2 min read
Motion of particles in the gas phase
The question, ‘What is pressure?’ is another odd question, but is not too difficult to answer. The constituent particles of…
Physical Chemistry 3 min read
The ideal-gas equation
A bubble-jet printer is one of the more useful and versatile inventions of the last decade. The active component of…
Physical Chemistry 4 min read
The effects of temperature on density
The air around a hot radiator soon acquires heat. We explain this observation from the ‘minus oneth law of thermodynamics’…
