Chemistry

This is the tenth chapter in an 18 chapter interactive text for introductory chemistry at the college or Honors/AP high school level.  The book contains video demonstrations, animations, photo galleries, checkpoints, audio introductions to each chapter, as well as methodology, visualization, and sample problems all done by sequential, progressive disclosure of the answer.  The book has a continuing emphasis on ways to learn chemistry, with hints, additional help in scrolling sidebars or “pop-ups,” as well as video clips of student preceptors’ views on how they successfully mastered chemistry.  The organization of the text allows the student to learn the basic concepts related to the bonding and structure of matter in the first eight chapters and then tackle the concepts necessary for an understanding of the reactions of matter—stoichiometry, thermodynamics and kinetics, and the four types of reactions with an emphasis on acids and bases.  The text integrates organic and inorganic examples and nomenclature.

This chapter provides information vital for an understanding and use of solutions.  Most of the materials that we encounter consist of one or more compounds (solutes) dissolved in a solvent.  These materials are usually designated by the concentration of the solutes in the solvent and the various concentration units, such as weight percent and molarity, must be mastered. The chapter also discusses the forces present in solution and the energetics of the solution process.  Finally, these forces are used to understand how the properties of solutions differ from those of the solvent.