Friday, September 23, 2011

Chapter 2

Any questions on Chapter 2 material? Ask them here.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

When Ge loses 4 electrons it beomes Ge4+: [Ar]3p^10, but if it only lost 2 electrons would electrons leave the 4s orbital or the 4p orbital first?

Scott McIndoe said...

4p; they're higher in energy than the 4s.

Anonymous said...

Go Canada! They're going to beat the all blacks...

Scott McIndoe said...

Canada beating the All Blacks is about as likely as NZ beating Canada in ice hockey. Assuming there are enough people who know how to ice skate in NZ to actually form a team, of course...

Anonymous said...

Is there a list of recommended readings somewhere or is at alllll recommended?

Scott McIndoe said...

The custom text IS your recommended reading. For Chem101, it's chapters 1 through 7.

Anonymous said...

is slaters rule going to come up on a midterm?

Scott McIndoe said...

No, we don't teach Slater's rules explicitly, but you do need to understand that electrons in the same shell shield each other poorly, but that the core electrons do a pretty good job of shielding. Slater's rules essentially add numbers to these statements, but they're still just approximations and we'd rather you understand the concept than memorize some numbers.

Anonymous said...

question 8.45 on chapter 3 assignment:
how do you determine which substance is molecular and which is ionic.

Scott McIndoe said...

Look at the difference in EN. Large difference suggests ionic, unless the metal has a very high + charge (in which case the bonding becomes covalent).