Chemistry 2150
GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION
Fall 2013
Instructors and Office Hours:
Professor H. Floyd Davis
Room 260B ST Olin Lab (5-0014), hfd1@cornell.edu
Office Hours:
Wednesday, 4:30-5:30 PM, or by appointment
Dr. Dan Lorey
Room G29A Baker Lab (4-4958, dl24@cornell.edu)
Chemistry 2150 Mission Statement: This course is an honors introductory chemistry course. Students should
have considerable experience, typically two years of high school chemistry, preferably AP credit (i.e., an AP
score of 5), and interest in chemistry. It is assumed that students have a firm foundation in trigonometry, the
elementary concepts of atoms, molecules, moles, balancing equations, moles, and applications of the ideal gas
law. (See Oxtoby, Chapters 1-3, 9.1-9.4) A calculus course at the level of MATH 1110 or 1910 is a co-requisite.
Note that Chemistry 2070 (Fall) and 2080 (Spring) is the standard Chemistry sequence. Because of course
material overlap, students cannot get credit for Chem 2070, 2080 or 2090 after taking 2150. If a student takes
Chemistry 2070 or 2090, any AP Chemistry credit is forfeited. Students intending to go on in chemistry after
2150 can enroll in Honors Organic Chemistry, Chemistry 3590, in the spring.
Undergraduate Instructional Office: Ms. Samantha Strickland (5-5287) in Baker 131 handle all questions
concerning entrance into and exit from the course, lecture and laboratory. For email correspondence about course
scheduling, etc., use chem2150@cornell.edu. Students wishing to register for or drop the course must see Ms.
Strickland. The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology requires departmental approval for all course
changes. If you are adding, dropping, or petitioning out of this course, a course change form must be submitted to
Ms. Strickland for signature. The Instructional Office is open M-F 8:00AM--4:30PM.
Lecture Schedule: Lectures are given in Baker 200 from 11:15-12:05 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If
you arrive late for lecture, do not enter through the doors on the second or third floor of Baker. Instead, go to the
back of the lobby on the first floor of Baker where, near the back of the room, you will find two staircases leading
to the back of the main of Baker 200. Please do not sit in the balcony – there is plenty of room on the main floor.
Laboratory Sections: You need to be enrolled in one laboratory section! It will meet weekly and will be run by
teaching assistants under the direction of Dr. Lorey. The laboratory check-in will begin the week of Tuesday
Sept. 3, with the first experiment starting Monday, Sept. 9. For your first laboratory go to Room 201D/201E, on
the east corridor of Baker Lab. A list of lab room assignments will be posted on Blackboard. If you don’t show
up promptly on the first lab day, you will likely be dropped from the course.
Teaching Assistants: Teaching assistants (TAs) will have regularly scheduled office hours. The 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 the first full week of classes. All regular office hours are open to any student in the course
(not just the individual TA's students). The TA’s mailboxes are in Baker 131.
Excused Absences and Make-ups: If you must miss the laboratory or a prelim due to illness or for other valid
reasons recognized by the University, e.g., religious holidays or death in your immediate family, send an email
message as early as possible, preferably in advance, to chem2150@cornell.edu clearly explaining the situation.
Include in your message a request for an excused absence or a make-up session. Please note that we do not offer
any make-up examinations.
Recesses and Travel Plans: There will be no class on Labor Day, Mon. Sept. 2. Fall Break begins Saturday,
October 12 and instruction resumes 7:30 am Wednesday, October 16. Thanksgiving Break begins Wed. Nov 27 at
1:10 PM (i.e., after class), and instruction resumes at 7:30AM on Mon. Dec. 7. Because of limited space,
laboratory sessions just before and after the breaks cannot be excused or rescheduled; travel arrangements should
be made accordingly.
Textbooks and Other Required Items:
1. Principles of Modern Chemistry, 7th ed (Oxtoby, Gillis & Campion). OWL online material is optional.
2. Calculator with logarithms and exponential functions. Graphing/text-capable calculators not allowed on exams.
3. Laboratory Research Notebook (notebook with carbon paper or carbonless duplicate sets).
NOTE: The Chemistry 2150 Laboratory Manual will be available for downloading from the Blackboard website.
Homework Problem Sets: These will be assigned weekly on Wednesdays. Assignments will NOT be handed in.
Solutions will be posted on the Chem 2150 web site on Friday afternoons, 9 days later. Each assignment will also
contain optional problems from the text that will be useful in preparing for examinations. It is important that you
do the problem sets to ensure that you understand the material.
Examinations: The two preliminary examinations will be held on Thursday, October 10 and Tuesday, November
19, from 7:30- 9:00 PM. The final examination will be held on Thursday December 12 at 9:00-11:30AM. Exam
locations will be announced in lecture. If you have a conflict with any of the examinations, you can sign up in
Baker 131 to take an early exam, running the same day at 5:45-7:15PM. No make-up exams will be given, and no
excused absences will be issued because of travel plans.
Course Web Site: The official Chem 2150 Web site can be accessed through http://www.blackboard.cornell.edu.
Potentially useful information such as Material Safety Data Sheets, solutions for exams and homework sets, and
powerpoint slides in pdf format used in lectures will be posted on the web site. To access the course website you
need to provide your NetID and password. Follow instructions for enrolling in the Chem 2150 course website.
Academic Integrity: Each student in this course is expected to abide by the Cornell University Code of Academic
Integrity. A Cornell student’s submission of work for academic credit indicates that the work is the student’s
own. All outside assistance should be acknowledged, and the student’s academic position truthfully reported at
all times.
Course Topics: We will cover most of the material from the following chapters, in the order given below. We
will also cover some material from other chapters, as necessary.
Chapter
12
13
14
15
16
4
17
18
5
6
11
Topic
Thermodynamic Processes and Thermochemistry
Spontaneous Processes and Thermo. Equilibrium
Chemical Equilibrium
Acid-Base Equilibria
Solubility and Precipitation Equilibria
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
Electrochemistry
Chemical Kinetics
Quantum Mechanics of Atoms
Quantum Mechanics and Molecular Structure
Solutions
Grading: The course is graded on the basis of 1000 total points divided as shown below:
Laboratory Reports
Examinations (2 at 200 points each)
Final Examination
Total
250
400
350
1000