CHEM 6A Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Dimensionless Quantity, Dimensional Analysis, Watt

• School: UCSD
• Department: Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Course: CHEM 6A
• Professor: Tin Yiu Lam

Document Summary

Chemistry: study of properties of substances and how they react with one another. 50% of chemists are involved with producing plastic. Fear of chemicals but are necessary in studying environment. Atoms: chemicals made up from 100 basic units known as these. Scientific method: use of carefully controlled experiments to answer questions. Qualitative data: non-numerical values (ex: observations, words) Hypothesis: proposition put forth as a possible explanation/prediction of an observation or phenomenon. Experiments: test hypothesis; see if hypothesis is reproducible under variety of experiments. Used to find patterns constant relationship of phenomena under same condition. Law of nature/scientific law: summarize relationship but do not explain it. Theory: unifying principle explains law based on experimental observations. Experiments several laws explained by unifying atomic theory. No theory can ever be proved correct by experiment. Experiment provide support but additional experiments will demonstrate a flaw. Experiment designed to disprove a hypothesis or theory rather than support.