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There are four (4) basic principles that can be used to describes all chemical concepts. To explain a concept, one can utilize one or more of these principle.
Kinetic Molecular Theory (KMT)
Definition: All substance are made up of Particles (basic units) that are in constant motion (therefore has energy) and sometimes they interact/collide.
- There are two different ways that particles can interact/collide:
- 1) The components that make up the Particles can regroup to create new grouping (I call new Particles). We call this a Chemical Reaction (chemical change). Chemical reaction are based on Collision Theory at your level of understanding. The forces that are overcome to create the regrouping are called Intramolecular Force.
- 2) The components that make up the Particles DO NOT REGROUP so that Particles do not change but they just influence each other. We call this a Physical process. The influnece is called Intermolecular Force (IMF)
- College Board AP chemistry does not use the name KMT but inside uses the phrase "particle view of matter". This means the same thing as KMT.
Conservation of Mass
Definition: Mass can not be gained nor lost in a physical process or chemical reaction. A more simple def is Mass is conserved.
- In general chemistry (excluding nuclear chemistry), we do not use Einstein equation, E=mc2 which basically means that Energy (E) can be changed directly into matter (m). Not in our chemistry.
Conservation of Energy
Definition: See above Conservation of Matter definition and replace mass with energy (including Einstein work)
Coulombic Force (those are my words, real name is Coulomb Law)
Definition: Same charge particles repel, different charge particles attract.
- If you are having a hard time understanding it, it is like when magnets interact
- Feynman said that if all human knowledge was eliminated and you need one concept to figure out all other concepts, it would be Coulomb Law.