Chem Spring 2008

PadawanLearner · Feb 15, 2008

Congrats, altbsn! Keep up the good work!

We had our second exam this past Tuesday. I got an 83 :madface:

But then I glanced over the exam after class and I counted only 13 points wrong. Talked to the instructor and she changed my grade to an 87, saying she "must have done the math wrong". :wink2:

After I got home, I looked it over again and found a problem she marked wrong that has to be right, so I'll likely be getting that grade changed (again) to an 88! I still have an "A" average!

You can do it!!

Annieee · Feb 15, 2008

Help!@!!! can anyone help me balance this into a double displacement? Thanks!!
SnCl2 + LiOH

What my teacher taught us was to make little boxes underneath each element separating them. You can make the same boxes for every equation because you're basically switching the anions with different cations in each double displacement equation. Since I can't draw here, I'll link you to one I did really quick on mspaint!

http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chemij9.jpg

I hope that kinda helps. But I see the person that posted above also helped too! :)

Edit: Sorry - I didn't know that the original post was a page back! I thought i was on the most recent page

Hotflashn · Feb 15, 2008

It's easy to forget that kind of stuff once you're out of Chemistry.

Isn't that the truth. I actually think I blocked much of it out! Like Post traumatic stress syndrome or something! It has only been a few years since I took general chem and I barely recall any of it. Reading some of your posts reminds me of all I have forgotten. Fortunately, I haven't needed to much of the forgotten general chem for organic chem, but I might for the biochem part coming up. Still, I need new resources that I don't quite have yet. Its so hard!

Anybody else dreaming chemistry? My brain is working really hard to make all those connections.

Do Or Do Not · Feb 15, 2008

Heh, heh. :) It's easy to forget that kind of stuff once you're out of Chemistry. The doctor I work with said to me, "Do you think I remember the periodic table after all these years?". That made me feel better, because she's so smart. If ya ain't usin' it, you're losin' it!
My current Chem prof would mark it wrong if we put parentheses around the expression that follows the coefficient, so that's why I pointed it out.

Heh, tell me about it! I'm working so hard to figure out all the Alkanes, Alkenes, Alkynes, Benezenes, & thingamabobs in O-Chem that I'm quickly forgetting all that math stuff form first semester :cry: That does make me feel though that even doctors forget it.

Apparently your professor isn't good at math (neither am I, but who's counting?), but okay, scratch anything I said about parentheses :)

AtomicWoman · Feb 16, 2008

I got my first Chem test back. I got a very high A, so I'm totally stoked right now! With all our grades thus far, I'm pulling a very high A as well. Of course, it's only going to get harder, but I'm off on the right track.

Congrats! Keep up the good work!

I just got an exam back -- got a 100! Not bad for an old coot like me! :lol2: Actually, I got a 103 with extra credit, but the prof doesn't give scores higher than 100%. :angryfire Hey, buddy, I might just need them 3 points after the next exam! LOL My first thought was, "wow, I guess the exam was really easy if I got a 100." But the class average was 74, so Yippee!

Now all I have to do is get 3 more As on exams and 8 more 10s on Lab reports....

AtomicWoman · Feb 16, 2008

Heh, tell me about it! I'm working so hard to figure out all the Alkanes, Alkenes, Alkynes, Benezenes, & thingamabobs in O-Chem that I'm quickly forgetting all that math stuff form first semester

I haven't taken O-Chem and I'm not required to, but I may do it someday anyway. From what I've heard, flashcards are a big part of surviving O-Chem! I took a look at an O-Chem text and I thought "That's not the chemistry I know and love. It's some sort of foreign language!" :bugeyes:

Hotflashn · Feb 16, 2008

I haven't taken O-Chem and I'm not required to, but I may do it someday anyway. From what I've heard, flashcards are a big part of surviving O-Chem! I took a look at an O-Chem text and I thought "That's not the chemistry I know and love. It's some sort of foreign language!"

It is just like a foreign language - and one in which you can say things at least 3 or 4 different ways, but up to hundreds of different ways. So far, it is very spatial (I am not) and visual, and very logical for the most part, with so, so many patterns. Everything is so intertwined. Though that was the case with general chem, too, I think. I have to say when I take these kinds of classes, I am always blown away at how wondrously and beautifully made we/it/everything is. It makes me feel very humble.

I am a fan of the flash cards, and using them for o chem, but about the same as general chem. Mostly to try to remember all the rules. It takes a lot of constantly drawing/writing the various structures. My hubby, who has never had o chem seems to totally get it. He is very spatial and can hold an image in his mind, turn it around, etc. He can see and predict connections intuitively. Grrr.

Do Or Do Not · Feb 16, 2008

I haven't taken O-Chem and I'm not required to, but I may do it someday anyway. From what I've heard, flashcards are a big part of surviving O-Chem! I took a look at an O-Chem text and I thought "That's not the chemistry I know and love. It's some sort of foreign language!"

LOL it totally is a foreign language. Take Alkenes for example. How you name them goes like this:

cis or trans-#-substituent-#-alken-#-suffix

So for a chain with 6 Carbon atoms on the main branch, a double bond on the 4th to 5th C atom and each side bending the same way, and an alcohol off the 2nd C, goes:

"cis-4-hexen-2-ol"

To make it even more fun Alkanes, Alkynes, and Benzenes all have their own way of naming too. There's about twice as much info to take in here as there was in Chem I. :bugeyes:

AlishiaRN77 · Feb 17, 2008

Way to Go for those of you who got your exams back and did very well.

I have to say that I giggled at the one who's teacher added wrong. I hate to say this but so typical of a science instructor..lol.

Hope everyone has a great weekend...off to another week!

AtomicWoman · Feb 17, 2008

It is just like a foreign language - and one in which you can say things at least 3 or 4 different ways, but up to hundreds of different ways. So far, it is very spatial (I am not) and visual, and very logical for the most part, with so, so many patterns.

Actually, the fact that it is so spatial and visual is one of the reason's I want to take it. Yes, I must be a masochist... :lol2: I am *not* spatially and visually-oriented; I am verbal/symbolic/digital in my thinking. But I found in A&P that when we studied the bones, my ability to start looking at things spatially and think about spatial and physical relationships started improving. I figured that can only help me some day when I'm an NP and a patient presents with X symptoms and "a pain right here" and I've got to think about their body in 3-D. Plus, I'm staving off Alzheimer's by making my brain grow new neuronal connections! Hah, hah!!

I won't be able to take O-Chem next year, because I'll be in nursing school, but maybe 2 years from now.

And to your husband, who gets it so quickly... :bowingpur

AtomicWoman · Feb 17, 2008

LOL it totally is a foreign language. Take Alkenes for example. How you name them goes like this:
cis or trans-#-substituent-#-alken-#-suffix
So for a chain with 6 Carbon atoms on the main branch, a double bond on the 4th to 5th C atom and each side bending the same way, and an alcohol off the 2nd C,

... and a partridge in a pear tree-ee-ee-ee! :)

My hat's off to you and anyone else who can make that stuff make sense!

:bow:

Do Or Do Not · Feb 17, 2008

... and a partridge in a pear tree-ee-ee-ee! :)
My hat's off to you and anyone else who can make that stuff make sense!

LOL thank you, thankyouverymuch! :up:

I'm barely a month into this course and I've already scribbled as many notes as I did in all of General Chem, and this for a course that only half of nursing schools require! I'm going for an accelerated B.S.N (since I have a previous Bachelor's) so for me it's mandatory. But hey, it's good brain prep for A&P when I take them in Fall & Spring!