The Atom
The smallest unit of an element that can exist alone or in combination with other elements
What is an atom?
The smallest particle of a compound or a gaseous element that can exist and still retain the characteristic properties of that substance
What is a molecule?
The arrangement of electrons in orbitals
What is an electron configuration?
A substance formed from two or more elements chemically united in fixed proportions
What is a chemical compound?
A chemical formula that represents the simplest whole-number ratio of elements in a compound.
What is an empricial formula?
This number is the same as the number of protons in an atom of a particular element.
What is an atomic number?
"Atoms attempt to acquire an outer orbital with eight electrons"
What is the octet rule?
What is an orbital (electron cloud)?
Chemical bonds that are formed when atoms share electrons
What is a covalent bond?
A chemical formula that specifies the actual number of each type of atom in a molecule
What is a molecular formula?
The sum of the numbers of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom
What is the mass number?
The combination of nonmetals with nonmetals
What is a covalent compound?
According to this principle, only 2 electrons with opposite spin can occupy and orbital.
What is the Pauli Exclusion Principle?
Bonds formed in metals where electrons move freely.
What is a metallic bond?
A chemical equation in which the number of atoms of each element is the same on both sides of the equation.
What is a balanced equation?
The name used to describe protons and neutrons
What are nucleons?
The combination of nonmetals with metals.
What is an ionic compound?
The term is used to describe the lowest energy state an electron can occupy in an atom.
What is the ground state?
Covalent bonds with an unequal sharing of electrons.
What is a polar covalent bond?
A number placed in front of a chemical formula in a balanced equation to represent the ratio of reactants and products
What is a coefficient?
A weighted average of the masses of isotopes of an element based on relative abundance.
What is an atomic weight?
Compounds with the same molecular formula but with different structures
What are isomers?
This principle says that we cannot know both the position and speed of a particle.
What is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?
The comparative ability of an element to attract bonding electrons.
What is electronegativity?
The principle that matter is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction, and the total mass of the reactants is equal to the total mass of the products
What is the law of conservation of mass?