Chemistry 2090
Fall 2015 1
GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION
Instructors and Office Hours:
Professor David B. Zax
Office Hours:
(5-3646; chem2090@cornell.edu)
Baker G-57 TBD
Laboratory Director:
Dr. Cynthia Kinsland
Office Hours:
(5-8844; chem2090@cornell.edu)
131A Baker Lab.: TBD
Undergraduate Instructional Office: Ms. Katy Kempf and Ms. Pat Hine (both reachable at
5-5287, or by email at chem2090@cornell.edu and in Baker 131) handle all questions
concerning entrance to and exit from the course, lecture and laboratory sections. If you are
adding, dropping, or petitioning out of this course, a course change form must be submitted to
Ms. Kempf or Ms. Hine for signature. They, and they alone, are authorized to sign for the course
instructor on "add" or "drop" forms. The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
requires departmental approval for all course changes. The Instructional Office is open M-F
8:00-4:30. Should you know in advance that you must be absent from lab, this should be
brought to their attention. Similarly, any conflicts with exam times (e.g. multiple prelims on the
same evening) should be reported to the course office. All administrative (in contrast to
scientific) questions should be brought to their attention.
The Course: Chemistry 2090 in the fall is offered to engineering undergraduates only. The
course will cover most of the same material taught in Chemistry 2070, using the same textbook,
and so should provide for a seamless transition into Chemistry 2080 for those engineers desiring
a second semester of general chemistry. It is also offered in the spring semester. The
engineering college determines who is enrolled in which semester of the course.
Lecture Schedule: Lectures are given in Baker 200 at 12:20-1:10pm on Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays. If you arrive late for lecture, do not enter through the doors on the second or third
floor halls of Baker. (In fact, they will be locked.) Instead, go to the back of the lobby on the first
floor of Baker where, near the bust of Professor Debye (Nobel Laureate 1936, formerly professor
of chemistry in this department) where you will find two staircases leading to the back of the
main floor and of the balcony of Baker 200.
Laboratory: You must be enrolled in lab, which will meet weekly.
Labs will begin the week of August 31. For your laboratory room assignments, check on the
Chem 2090 Blackboard site starting Sunday, August 30, or check the lists in the 1st floor Baker
lobby (directly below Baker 200) starting Monday, August 31.
You must attend lab at your assigned time with your assigned TA. Because all Chem 2090 lab
sections will be at or near maximum capacity, it will be highly unlikely that you will be able to
make up lab work missed due to an unexcused absence, and you will receive a zero for that
experiment. If you must miss a laboratory session because of illness, you must e-mail both your
lab TA and Ms. Kempf (chem2090@cornell.edu) prior to the start of your lab in order to be
excused or schedule a make-up lab, should space be available. If you miss a laboratory for other
valid reasons recognized by the University, such as a religious holiday, University-sponsored
Chemistry 2090 Tentative Syllabus
Fall 2015
2
event or crisis in your immediate family, you must see Ms. Kempf before the holiday/event (or
upon your return to campus in the event of a family emergency) in order to obtain an excused
absence or schedule a make-up lab session (if spaces open up as the semester goes forward). If
you have more than three excused absences from lab in the semester, you may be assigned a
grade of INC and be required to make up the missing labs. The lowest laboratory grade will be
dropped, unless you have three excused absences.
Succeeding in Chem 2090: We are often asked how to succeed in chem2090. There are no
secrets; it takes discipline, consistent hard work and effort. The syllabus indicates which
chapters in the text will be covered. You will be best prepared if you have read those chapters
before the lecture itself. You should read the material with the idea that you should understand
the majority of the material before it is presented in class—and (almost) all of it after.
Lectures are the best place to find out what the professor—who writes the exams in the course—
think is most important about the chapters. Often times, questions which arise during the
lectures form the core of good exam questions. (Despite its large size, you are encouraged to
ask questions during lecture!) Attending lecture is normally not sufficient; learning requires
your participation in the lecture—most obviously by taking notes. Current research
demonstrates that hand-written notes are more effective than computer-based notes, precisely
because your note-taking is slower—and therefore you are forced to process and edit on-the-fly.
Furthermore, there are fewer distractions available to students writing their notes out long hand.
Homework is intended to provide a range of exercises, ranging from the baseline that any
student of chemistry should be capable of solving, to more challenging, which will often
represent the kinds of questions which show up on exams. Your goal in addressing the
homework should be to understand how to think about the problems assigned, and not simply to
get the correct answers; the real benefit is achieved when you can get similar problems correct
with minimal additional effort based on the understanding achieved in doing the homework.
While the assignments are graded, it is highly recommended to check the homework solutions
which will be posted to the course web page, as the grading is not intended to correct errors or
misunderstandings. (Of course, the benefit of the homework is proportional to the individual
effort.) Generally, we try to assign homework where you should be able to make good progress
well before the due date; you should start to work through the problems well before the due date.
We will often work on problems similar to homework problems during class. Come prepared
(paper, calculators, iclickers, or wireless devices) to do some work.
Office hours: Practical demonstrations of how one solves problems in general chemistry are
best addressed in smaller than 400 person classrooms—though we will work through problems
collectively during lecture time. For more individualized needs, the faculty and TA’s have
numerous office hours each week and, other than just before a prelim, the office hours are rarely
crowded.
For the most part, the exam questions could just as easily have appeared as homework problems
for the course. Exam preparation should consist largely of reviewing the homework problems
Chemistry 2090
Fall 2015 3
(and, especially, the answers!), and in doing additional similar problems (many of which are
available at the ends of each chapter in our text).
Teaching Assistants: Teaching assistants (TAs) hold regularly scheduled office hours. Times
and locations will be posted on the course Web page and on the bulletin board around the corner
from Baker 131. Office hours will start in September. All regular office hours are open to any
student in the course; you need not wait until your lab TA has office hours to seek help. The
TA mailboxes are located in Baker 131.
Recesses and Travel Plans: Fall Break begins Saturday, October 10, 2015. Instruction resumes
7:30 am Wednesday, October 14, 2015. Thanksgiving recess begins Wednesday, November 25,
2015 and continues through Sunday, November 29, 2015. Some laboratory/recitation sections
will be cancelled around these breaks—see the Lab Schedule for information—travel
arrangements should be made accordingly. You will not be able to make up lab work missed
due to travel plans which interfere with your attendance in required portions of the course.
Textbooks and Other Required Materials:
1. General Chemistry, 4th Edition; McQuarrie, Rock, and Gallogly
2. The laboratory exercises will posted on Blackboard. It will be your responsibility to
print them and bring them with you to the laboratory. If you come to lab without the
printed laboratory exercise, you will need to print it before being allowed into the lab;
there are no public facilities for printing in Baker Lab. No extra time will be given for
you to complete the experiment.
3. iClicker transmitter. Baker 200 is equipped with a personal response system that
allows you to respond to questions. This is meant to enhance learning, and not to take
attendance or give quizzes. iClicker transmitters are available for purchase at the Campus
Store; should you prefer, it should may be possible to participate (for a small fee) with
more standardized wireless devices (Ipad, smart phone, etc.)
4. Scientific calculators with logarithm and exponential functions. Calculators capable
of displaying text, i.e. graphing calculators, are not permitted for exams.
5. Laboratory Research Notebook (notebook with carbon paper or carbonless duplicate
sets).
6. Ball-point pen, for laboratory.
7. Safety goggles and an apron will be provided at lab check-in and must be worn in the
lab throughout the term. You are also responsible for proper attire in the laboratory (e.g.
closed toed shoes). Long pants are highly to be recommended.
Homework Problem Sets: These will be assigned weekly in lecture and via ALEKS; the onpaper assignment will be posted on the Chem2090 website. The ALEKS website is intended to
allow for all our students to achieve basic mastery of the essential topics; the on-paper problems
will more typically represent what we think of as reasonable examination problems.
Assignments will be handed in and graded. Assignments are due on the specified day (usually
Fridays) at 2:00 p.m. in the Baker Lobby. Late assignments will not be accepted. Solutions will
be posted on the Chem2090 web site. The lowest homework grade score will be dropped.
Chemistry 2090 Tentative Syllabus
Fall 2015
4
Examinations: Two preliminary examinations will be held from 7:30-9:00pm on Thursday,
October 8 and Tuesday, November 17. If you find you have a conflict with another Universityscheduled examination, contact Ms. Kempf or Ms. Hine as soon as possible. Early exams may
be scheduled where conflicts occur, but no make-up exams will be given nor will excused
absences be issued to accommodate travel plans. If you have a health condition that prevents
you from taking a prelim exam, you will be granted an excused absence. This means that you
will skip that prelim exam, and the “missing” grade will be assigned based on your remaining
exam grades; no make-up prelims will be given. The final examination has not yet been
scheduled; we have no control over its scheduling and can provide no information about
when you might be free to leave Ithaca for the semester break until the registrar has
published the final exam calendar.
Course Web Site: The Chem2090 Web site can be accessed through either:
http://chem.cornell.edu or http://www.blackboard.cornell.edu and by following the appropriate
links. Useful information posted here includes copies of Material Safety Data Sheets, solutions
for exams and homework sets, occasional supplemental readings, and whatever else we decide
should be useful to you. To access the course website you need to provide your NetID and
Kerberos password. All other information and announcements will be posted on the course web
site.
Email to Instructors: Email for Professor Zax or Dr. Kinsland should be sent to:
chem2090@cornell.edu. Email is not recommended for questions on homework or course
material; these are most effectively and efficiently answered in person, during office hours, by a
TA or by the professor(s).
Academic Integrity: Each student in this course is expected to abide by the Cornell University
Code of Academic Integrity: http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html All work submitted
by a student in this course for academic credit must be the student’s own original work.
Further discussion of the Code in the context of Chem 2090 will be provided in the 2090
Laboratory Manual posted on Blackboard. Where violations of the academic integrity code are
suspected, we will investigate further and assess appropriate penalties.
While cooperation on homeworks/lab is encouraged, where we can identify which groups of
students worked together based on the submitted labs/homework papers, then it is no longer your
individual work. Where two or more students hand in the same work for credit, all parties
are understood to be equally responsible for the violation.
Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for
textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers
will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the
purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the
Usage Policy posted on the Turnitin.com site.
All course materials are copyrighted. That means that posting or downloading any course
materials to/from any of the websites which collect such materials is a violation of that
copyright.
Chemistry 2090
Fall 2015 5
Course Topics: The order in which topics will be covered will differ from that in the textbook.
The course syllabus delineates which topics we intend to cover on specified days; it is, of course,
subject to modification as the semester goes on.
Grading: The course is graded on the basis of 1000 total points distributed as shown below:
ALEKS Pre-Course Assignment
Homework
Laboratory Reports
Examinations (2 at 200 points each)
Final Examination
Total
30
90
180
400
300
1000
The department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology has determined that the median grade for
chem 2090 will be a B.
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES
Academic Excellence Workshops: Academic Excellence Workshops are optional 1-credit
supplemental courses taken in conjunction with core engineering courses in math, computer
science, chemistry, and statistics. AEWs meet weekly for two-hour collaborative problemsolving sessions. Designed to enhance student understanding, the workshops are facilitated by
undergraduate peer educators, and feature group work on problems at or above the level of
course instruction. AEWs are based on research showing that cooperative methods (as opposed
to an individual, competitive approach to learning) promote higher grades, greater persistence,
deeper comprehension, more enjoyment in learning, and more positive attitudes toward academic
work. The workshops function as one-credit courses and are graded "S/U" based on attendance.
Those who miss more than three workshops (including sessions missed because of late
enrollment) will automatically receive a "U" grade.
The AEW program is not associated with, nor run, out of the chemistry department. For further
information, stop by the Engineering Learning Initiatives program office in 167 Olin Hall or go
to www.engineering.cornell.edu/aew.
Chemistry 2090 Tentative Syllabus
Fall 2015
Date/Lecture #
W 08/26 – L1
Reading
(McQuarrie et al)
Ch. 2
F 08/28 – L2
M 08/31 – L3
W 09/02 – L4
F 09/04 – L5
M 09/07
W 09/09 – L6
F 09/11 – L7
M 09/14 – L8
W 09/16 – L9
F 09/18 – L10
M 09/21 – L11
W 09/23 – L12
Ch. 2
Chs. 2, 11
Ch. 11
Ch. 12
Labor Day
Ch. 12, 13
Ch. 13 (to 13.8)
Ch. 3
Ch. 3
Ch. 10
Ch. 24
Ch. 4
F 09/25 – L13
M 09/28 – L14
W 09/30 – L15
F 10/02 – L16
M 10/05 – L17
W 10/07 – L18
R 10/08 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Fri 10/09 – L19
M 10/12
W 10/14 – L20
F 10/16 – L21
Ch. 4
Ch. 4
Ch. 5
Ch. 5
Ch. 5
Ch. 6
PRELIM I
Ch. 6
Fall Break
Ch. 6
Ch. 7
M 10/19 – L22
W 10/21 – L23
F 10/23 – L24
M 10/26 – L25
W 10/28 – L26
F 10/30 – L27
M 11/02 – L28
W 11/04 – L29
F 11/06 – L30
M 11/09 – L31
W 11/11 – L32
F 11/13 – L33
Ch. 7
Ch. 7
Ch. 14
Ch. 8
Ch. 8
Ch. 26
Ch. 26
Ch. 26
Ch. 9
Ch. 9
Ch. 9
Ch. 9
M 11/16 – L34
T 11/17 7:30 – 9:00 pm
W 11/18 – L35
F 11/20 – L36
M 11/23 – L37
W 11/25; F 11/27
M 11/30– L38
W 12/02 – L39
Ch. 13.9 and on
Prelim II
Ch. 13
Ch. 13
Ch. 15
THANKSGIVING
Ch. 15
Ch. 15
6
Topics
Course Intro; Atomic Theory
Molecules, percent composition
Atomic composition and mass; the mole
Calculations, Molecular and Empirical Formulas
Stoichiometry; Limiting Reagents
Calculations in Solution and Gas Phase
Ideal Gas Law(s)
Periodicity
Periodicity
Reactions
Oxidation/Reduction
Quantum Theory of Atoms
Radiation, Waves, Absorption
Wave/Particle Duality
Quantum Theory, quantum #’s
Lewis Dots; Orbitals
Probability Densities
Ionic Model/oxidation states
R 10/08 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Transition Metals
Electron Configurations/Lattice Energies
Covalent Bonding
Formal Charges; Resonance
Electronegativity; Dipole Moments
Bond Enthalpies
VSEPR/ Molecular Geometries
Geometric Isomers
Transition metals, Coordination compounds
Coordination compounds/Spectroscopy
Isomers in Coordination Complexes
MO Theory; Hybridization
MO Theory: Diatomics
Multiple Bonds
Multiple Bonds; Delocalized π bonds
Kinetic theory
Effusion/Mean Free Paths
Gases, non-ideal
condensed phases
Liquids, phase diagrams
Liquids, phase diagrams