[allieinaz]

Originally Posted by Hanabna

I also ordered some Cliff's notes books of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. I'll let ya know if these pocket books are any good.

I purchased this book at Barnes and Noble and so far it's helped. I hope it will help you as well.

I'm going to see if I can draw something on here..lol. It's the way my teacher taught us the metric system...so hopefully it works, many apologizes if it doesn't.

<--------
...................../ - Kilo -------------------King
................../ - Hecto ------------------ Henry
.............../ - Deca ---------------------Died
............/ - Base (Liter, Gram, and Meter)--by Light Green Milk
........./ - Deci --------------------------that Dead
....../ - Centi ---------------------------Cows
.../ - Milli ------------------------------Make
----------->

Ok...so if you draw this Z and notice the arrows.....the story line for this is....King Henry Died by Light Green Milk that Dead Cows Make


I know, I know pretty gross right....but this made it soooo much easier for me to understand.

Lets say you have 10 meters of something and you need to know what it is in centimeters (cm).

on the Z scale - go to the Base where meter is located.
Next look for centimeters - notice that it is 2 lines down from the base.
Then follow the Z scale all the way down and notice how it goes to the right.....where the arrow is...
This means..the decimal will go 2 places to the right.
Thus, 10 meters = 1000 cm


Another example....

24592 dg (decigrams) = ________ kg (kilograms)

4 lines to kilo......notice where the arrow goes...to the left.
So 4 decimal places to the left.

24952 dg = 2.4952 kg

I hope this helps anyone out there. PM me if you have any questions.

[Hanabna]

Thanks that's actually really helpful. I'm going to write it down and practice with it for sure. =]

[kristi1111]

Thanks for the "Z" scale for metric conversions. I am going to write this down and study it for my first quiz on Tuesday.

[NXS]

Great website to refresh on chemistry concepts, good easy method of explaining each key concepts and includes examples and such. I used it few years back but i think it'll help.

http://www.chemreview.net/

[RNWannaBe724]

I am taking Intro to Chem right now and have only had one class and am already discouraged. We started in with conversions, and I am already lost. Can anyone help me with these?
Conversions meaning... 300m is ? km. but you have to do all the work for it and use fractions and stuff. I am SO LOST!

[itsa307]

Originally Posted by RNWannaBe724

I am taking Intro to Chem right now and have only had one class and am already discouraged. We started in with conversions, and I am already lost. Can anyone help me with these?
Conversions meaning... 300m is ? km. but you have to do all the work for it and use fractions and stuff. I am SO LOST!

This is what we are doing too and I'm not sure if it'll help but I'm making notecards. I have them divided into length, weight, mass, volume... I know this is going to be hard but I'm determined to master one chapter at a time. Also my teacher has offered help before class and thru email. You might want to ask yours. I've been told by other just don't get behind. My school also offers free tutoring, you may want to check to see what yours offers. Hang in there!

[allieinaz]

Originally Posted by RNWannaBe724

I am taking Intro to Chem right now and have only had one class and am already discouraged. We started in with conversions, and I am already lost. Can anyone help me with these?
Conversions meaning... 300m is ? km. but you have to do all the work for it and use fractions and stuff. I am SO LOST!

Hopefully this will help....please refer to the Z scale on top to help.

300m = ______km

300m x __1km = 300 divided by 1000m = 0.3km
--------1000m

I don't know if you use significant figures as well......

300m has only 1 sig fig...thus your answer will be 0.3km

another example:

How many tablespoons are in 15 teaspoons (1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons)

your given is the 15 teaspoons, which equals 2 sig figs. (1 and 5)

15 teaspoons x 1 tablespoon = 15 divded by 3 = 5 tablespoons
---------------3 teaspoons

but keep in mind that you need 2 sig figs....so your answer will be: 5.0 tablespoons.

another example:

How many nickels are in $2.75? (There are 3 sig figs in this answer)

1. You know that 4 quarters equals $1.00
2. You know that 5 nickels equals a quarter

So your rations for the above are: 4 quarters = $1.00
-----------------------------------$1.00 -----4 quarters

5 nickels = 1 quarter
1 quarter ---5 nickels

The given in the question is $2.75

So start out with 2.75 dollars x 4 quarters x 5 nickels =
------------------------------1.00 dollar ---1 quarter

The dollars and quarters cancel out...leaving you with an answer in nickels.

So multiply the top numbers: 2.75 x 4 x 5 = 55
Then multiply the bottom numbers: 1.00 x 1 = 1.00

Then divide 55 by 1.00 = you get 55 nickels. (your final answer)

I hope that made sense.

[jorhyne]

wrong thread

[Hanabna]

allieinaz you rock! Thanks for the help! You're 1,000 times better than my Chem teacher!

[allieinaz]

Hanabna -I'm glad to hear that it helped. I know that the conversions can get tricky and you'll need to know how to do all this before getting into molarity, density, percent solution, and dilutions. I had to learn these quickly because we began going over them in biology.....ugh!! But...good news, i'll be ready when we start doing them for Chemistry.

It has really helped using the Cliff study solver for Chemistry. Makes Chemistry sooooo much easier.

Let me know if you have any other questions...i'll try and answer the easiest way possible...of course this will have to be after i learn it the easiest way possible..lol.

Have a great day all!!