General Chemistry – Midtest Study Guide
Week 1 - Scientific Method Lab
Things to know:
 What is scientific method?
 What is a hypothesis? Law? Theory?
 What are the steps of scientific method?
 How would you record data properly?
 General rules for lab safety
 Proper PPE – what is it?
Example Questions:
1. What is the correct order of the steps in the scientific method.
A) Ask questions, make a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, analyze results, draw conclusions,
communicate results.
B) Make a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, analyze the results, ask a question, draw conclusions,
communicate results.
C) Ask a question, make a hypothesis, test hypothesis, draw conclusions, analyze results,
communicate results.
D) Ask a question, analyze results, make a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, draw conclusions,
communicate results.
2. Which question would be the best high level scientific question?
A) Who made the first microscope?
B) How long ago did dinosaurs live on the Earth?
C) How many giraffes live in Africa?
D) Does the amount of salt in water affect the temperature at which it boils?
3. Which of the following is NOT a rule when writing a hypothesis?
A) It is testable
B) It is an if/then statement
C) It should restate the question
D) It is a prediction.
4. Which of the following hypotheses is written correctly?
A) If I freeze a tennis ball, then it will not bounce as high.
B) Frozen tennis balls will not bounce as high.
C) If I heat up a tennis ball it will bounce high.
D) If a tennis ball is frozen, it will not bounce as high as one that is not frozen.
Week 2 - Measurement, Sig Figs, & Calculations Lab
Things to know:
 When completing calculations how are sig figs recorded?
 What are the basic metric units?
 How do you read a measurement tool (graduated cylinder, ruler, etc…)? How many significant figures
need to be recorded?
 What methods can be used to obtain the volume of an object?
 Density calculations
 What can density reveal about the purity of an object?
Example Questions:
5. Which of the following numbers contains the designated CORRECT number of significant figures?
A) 0.04300 5 significant figures
B) 0.00302 2 significant figures
C) 156 000 3 significant figures
D) 1.04 2 significant figures
E) 3.0650 4 significant figures
6. Which of the following measurements are NOT equivalent?
A) 25 mg = 0.025 g
B) 183 L = 0.183 kL
C) 150. msec = 0.150 sec
D) 84 cm = 8.4 mm
E) 24 dL = 2.4 L
Week 3 - Conversion Factors Lab
Things to know:
 How do you properly convert between units?
 How do you use conversion factors?
 How do you convert between the metric system and US measurements?
 What are the basic metric conversions?
 How do you convert when exponents exist?
 Temperature conversions
Example Questions:
7. A doctor's order is 0.125 g of ampicillin. The liquid suspension on hand contains 250 mg/5.0 mL.
How many milliliters of the suspension are required?
A) 0.0025 mL
B) 3.0 mL
C) 2.5 mL
D) 6.3 mL
E) 0.0063 mL
8. A nugget of gold with a mass of 521 g is added to 50.0 mL of water. The water level rises to a volume
of 77.0 mL. What is the density of the gold?
A) 10.4 g/mL
B) 6.77 g/mL
C) 1.00 g/mL
D) 0.0518 g/mL
E) 19.3 g/mL
Week 4 - Gas Laws Lab
Things to know:
 How do you calculate partial pressures?
 How to use Boyle’s Law? Charles Law? Combined Gas Law?
 How do you convert between pressure units?
 How does pressure apply to the human body?
 What do each of the relationships in the gas laws look like graphically?
 How to find the slope of a line?
Example Questions:
9. If the volume of a confined gas is doubled while the temperature remains constant, what change (if
any) would be observed in the pressure?
A) It would be half as large.
B) It would double.
C) It would be four times as large.
D) It would be 1/4 as large.
E) It would remain the same.
10. 1 atm is equal to:
A) 760 mmHg.
B) 760 torr.
C) 101,325 Pa.
D) 14.7 psi.
E) all of the above
11. A balloon filled with 0.500 L of air at sea level (1 atm) is submerged in the water to a depth that
produces a pressure of 3.25 atm. What is the volume of the balloon at this depth?
A) 1.63 L
B) 0.154 L
C) 6.50 L
D) 0.615 L
E) none of the above
12. Divers often inflate heavy duty balloons attached to salvage items on the sea floor. If a balloon is
filled to a volume of 3.00 L at a pressure of 2.50 atm, what is the volume of the balloon when it reaches
the surface?
A) 7.50 L
B) 1.20 L
C) 0.833 L
D) 5.50 L
E) none of the above
13. A 5.00 liter balloon of gas at 25°C is cooled to 0°C. What is the new volume (liters) of the balloon?
A) 0 liters
B) 22.4 liters
C) 5.46 liters
D) 4.58 liters
E) none of the above
14. A gas sample occupies 3.50 liters of volume at 20.°C. What volume will this gas occupy at 100°C
(reported to three significant figures)?
A) 0.224 L
B) 2.75 L
C) 4.46 L
D) 17.5 L
E) none of the above
Week 5 - Qualitative Analysis Lab
Things to know:
 What type of data is qualitative data?
 What is the difference between qualitative data and quantitative data?
 How do you interpret the solubility rules?
 Reading and interpreting data using a flow chart
Example Questions:
15. Which of the following is an example of qualitative data?
A) The density of gold is 19.8 g/ml.
B) The solution turned bright yellow.
C) The desk was 48 cm in width.
D) The solution had a molarity of 2.1M.
16. Qualitative results refer to:
A) Results that can be observed during an experiment.
B) Results that are difficult to observe during an experiment.
C) Results that require numerical data.
D) none of these is correct.
Week 6 - Solutions, Colloids, & Suspensions Lab
Things to know:
 How do you complete and balance a chemical equation when aqueous solutions are involved?
 How do you calculate the molarity of a solution?
 What makes solutions, colloids and suspensions different?
 What is the Tyndall effect?
 What is the difference between an isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic solution?
 How do you calculate mass/mass%, mass/volume%, and volume/volume%?
 Homogeneous versus heterogeneous solutions?
Example Questions:
17. Which of the following is a concentration expressed in percent by volume?
A) 10% (v/v)
B) 10% (m/v)
C) 10% (m/m)
D) 10%
18. Which of the following pairs of substances are miscible?
A) Water and gasoline
B) Water and sodium chloride
C) Water and oxygen
D) Water and ethyl alcohol
19. Which type of mixture could most likely be separated using filter paper?
A) Colloid
B) Suspension
C) Solution
D) Emulsion
20. How many moles of NaOH would be needed to make 0.0500 L of a 0.750M solution?
A) 15.0 mol
B) 0.0375 mol
C) 50.0 mol
D) 0.750 mol
21. The main difference between a suspension and a colloid is that:
A) In suspensions the particles eventually settle to the bottom.
B) In colloids the particles eventually settle to the bottom.
C) In colloids, the solute is permanently dissolved in the solvent.
D) None of these
Week 7 - Vitamins Lab
Things to know:
 What are the function of vitamins (D, B, C, etc)?
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How are vitamins classified? Of the vitamins tested which fall into each classification?
How do vitamins break down in the body or are excreted from the body?
What equipment was used to perform the titration?
What does “like dissolves like” mean?
Example Questions:
22. The fat-soluble vitamins include:
A) A, B6, D
B) C, Thiamin, K
C) A, D, E, K
D) Riboflavin, Folate, Thiamin
23. Consider the following: A patient complains of joint pain, has bleeding gums, and has a cut that is
not healing. What vitamin deficiency might you suspect?
A) Vitamin C
B) Vitamin A
C) Vitamin D
D) Vitamin K
24. Vitamin D deficiency results in abnormal bone structure because
A) magnesium absorption increases
B) collagen is not made correctly
C) calcium absorption decreases
D) there is a insufficient antioxidant production
Week 8 - Synthesis of Aspirin Lab
Things to know:
 How is aspirin synthesized? (i.e.; what is the chemical reaction?)
 What is the theoretical yield? Actual yield? Percent yield?
 How do you calculate the yields?
 What equipment was utilized in the synthesis of aspirin?
Example Questions:
25. If the theoretical yield for a reaction was 156 grams and I actually made 122 grams of the product,
what is my percent yield?
A) 78.2%
B) 128%
C) 19.0%
D) none of these
26. The ratio of the actual yield to the theoretical yield is known as the
A) Excess yield
B) Reagent yield
C) Percent yield
D) Experimental yield
Week 9 - Analysis of Aspirin Using TLC Lab
Things to know:
 How do you calculate the Rf value?
 What is the retention factor?
 What is the relationship between the retention factor and the polarity?
Example Questions:
27. Chromatography is used to:
A) Separate two or more compounds based on their polarities.
B) Separate two or more compounds based on their masses.
C) Separate two or more compounds based on how strongly they interact with other compounds.
D) Both A and C are correct
28. Calculate the Rf value is the chemical travels is measured to be 2.5 cm and the solvent front has
traveled 8.5 cm
A) 11
B) 0.29
C) 3.4
D) 0.60
Answers to the multiple-choice questions:
1A
2D
3C
4A
5C
6D
7C
8E
9A
10 E
11 B
12 A
13 D
14 C
15 B
16 A
17 A
18 D
19 B
20 B
21 A
22 C
23 A
24 C
25 A
26 C
27 D
28 B