The Chemistry Department
Dr. Walvoord's favorite pop artist.
Lady Gaga
In 450 BC, the ancient Greeks believed these four "elements" made up everything in the world.
Earth, water, air, and fire
(Aristotle also suggested that there was a fifth element, aether, because he couldn't believe the stars were made of earthly elements!)
The molecular geometry of phosphorus pentachloride.
Trigonal Bipyramidal
The alphabetical letter(s) that is NOT found in the periodic table.
J and Q
(Q is technically found in element 124, unbiquadium (Ubq), a hypothetical chemical element that acts as a placeholder until the element is discovered, confirmed, then named).
Rhetoric and Responsibilities of a Scientist!
The scientist who invented the synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas, significantly increasing food production; also known as the "father of chemical warfare."
Fritz Haber
The university Dr. Smeller attended for her master's degree and her Ph.D.
University of Oregon
The model of the atom that was created by J.J. Thomson and resembled a British dessert.
The Plum Pudding Model
The best conditions for ideal gas behavior (There's three!).
1. Low pressure (at high pressures, gas particles stop acting as points)
2. High temperature (need enough kinetic energy to overcome intermolecular forces)
3. Non-polar gases (Weak intermolecular forces)
Chemistry Joke!
Why was the mole of oxygen molecules excited when he left the singles bar?
Because he got Avogadro's number!
Organic Chemistry!
See Powerpoint
See Powerpoint
The chemistry professor who got their undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering.
Dr. Wilner
The chemist who discovered two elements and named one after her home country.
Marie Curie
(The first woman to win a Nobel Prize, she discovered radium and polonium, naming the latter after Poland).
1. Ion-Dipole
2. Dipole-Dipole
3. Hydrogen bonding
4. Ion-induced dipole
5. Dipole induced dipole
6. Van der Waals/London Dispersion
This fruit is naturally radioactive and used as an informal unit for measuring ionizing radiation exposure.
Banana
(Bananas contain potassium-40, a naturally occurring radioactive isotope.
The banana equivalent dose (BED) is used as a general educational example to compare a dose of radioactivity to the dose one is exposed to by eating one average-sized banana, approximately 10−7 sieverts)
Analytical Chemistry!
A charge-coupled device, typically found in UV-vis spectrophotometers, mass spectrometers, and chromatography detectors (Like HPLC), is also used in this commonly found item.
Phones!
(A CCD converts light into electronic signals. It’s used when you need high-resolution, low-noise detection of light and also used for your phone cameras!)
The chemistry professor who drinks one can of Coca-Cola a day and makes a pyramid of cans on their desk by the end of the week.
Dr. Klein
The Russian chemist who, inspired by a dream, discovered the periodic law, which states that the properties of elements are periodic functions of their atomic numbers.
Dmitri Mendeleev
The balanced reaction for the combustion of propane. (Hint: Propane is C3H8 (g)).
C3H8 (g) + 5O2 (g) → 3CO2 (g) + 4H2O (g)
Chemistry Joke!
What did the thermometer say to the graduated cylinder?
“At least I have a degree!”
Inorganic Chemistry!
See Powerpoint
P-Type
The country of which Dr. Williamsen's pen pal (from 4th grade until the end of his graduation) from college is from. (Hint: He visited the country and pen-pal upon graduating college.)
Germany
At least one of the chemists who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024 "for computational protein design" and "for protein structure prediction."
David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper.
The molecular orbital diagram for H2.
See Powerpoint
The full name for Beer's law, most commonly used in France and has the acronym BBL. (200 points for each word, 500 for all)
Beer-Bouguer-Lambert Law
Physical Chemistry!
This scientist extended Balmer's formula for all series (shown below) and determined one of the most precise constants in the world.
1/λ = (109677.581 cm-1)(1/n12 - 1/n22) where n2>n1
Johannes Rydberg
(The Rydberg constant is so precise, it is equivalent to knowing the exact number of people in the world!)