Chemistry Flashcards
(79 cards)
What is an atom?
The smallest part of an element that can exist.
What is an element?
A substance made of only one type of atom.
How many elements are there?
About 100 different elements.
What is a compound?
A substance made from two or more elements chemically combined in fixed proportions.
What is a mixture?
Two or more elements or compounds not chemically combined.
How can mixtures be separated?
By physical processes, such as filtration, distillation, or chromatography.
What is a chemical formula?
A way to show which atoms and how many of each are in a molecule of a compound.
What is a word equation?
A way to write out what happens in a chemical reaction using the names of substances.
Give an example of a word equation.
Magnesium + oxygen → magnesium oxide.
What does filtration do?
Separates an insoluble solid from a liquid.
What is simple distillation used for?
To obtain a solvent from a solution (e.g. pure water from salty water).
What is fractional distillation used for?
To separate mixtures where components have different boiling points.
What is chromatography used for?
To separate mixtures of substances dissolved in a solvent, like inks or dyes.
Describe the setup for simple distillation.
Heat the solution so the solvent evaporates, travels through a condenser, and is collected; the solute stays behind.
Describe the setup for fractional distillation.
Heat the mixture, components with lower boiling points evaporate first and are condensed and collected.
Describe the setup for chromatography.
Place a spot of mixture on chromatography paper, solvent moves up carrying different substances at different rates, separating them.
What is meant by ‘physical process’ in separating mixtures?
Processes that do not involve chemical reactions and do not form new substances.
What is the law of conservation of mass?
The total mass of reactants equals the total mass of products in a chemical reaction.
How do you calculate the number of neutrons?
Number of neutrons = mass number - atomic number.
What is an isotope?
Atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons.
Give an example of two isotopes of chlorine.
Cl-35 (17 protons, 18 neutrons), Cl-37 (17 protons, 20 neutrons).
What is an ion?
An atom that has lost or gained electrons, giving it a charge.
How do metal atoms form ions?
They lose electrons to form positive ions.
How do non-metal atoms form ions?
They gain electrons to form negative ions.