Chemistry is the study of matter and energy at the scale of atoms and molecules; covering a year's worth of introductory general chemistry at the college level; touching on topics that are rarely discussed in the classroom.
EPISODE 1
Is Chemistry the Science of Everything?
Chemistry is the study of all matter, but matter at the very particular scale of atoms and molecules; Professor Davis begins by outlining his approach to this topic; introducing the periodic table of elements, which is a powerful conceptual tool.
EPISODE 2
Matter and Measurement
Chemists have convenient units for dealing with matter at the atomic scale; learning the origin and relative size of the angstrom to measure length; the atomic mass unit; the mole for measuring quantity; the Kelvin scale for temperature.
EPISODE 3
Wave Nature of Light
Light interacts with matter in crucial ways; following the debate over whether light is a wave or a particle; how the wave theory appears to triumph in the 19th century; how it leads to the discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum.
EPISODE 4
Particle Nature of Light
Although light has wave-like properties, it also behaves like a particle that comes in discrete units of energy called quanta; how physicists build a revolutionary picture of light that recognizes both its wave- and particle-like nature.
EPISODE 5
Basic Structure of the Atom
Investigating what is inside the atom; how electrons, protons and neutrons are distributed; how they give an atom its identity; how they affect its electrical charge and atomic mass; the meaning of terms such as isotope, anion and cation.
EPISODE 6
Electronic Structure of the Atom
How electrons organize themselves within the atom depending on their energy state; graduating from Niels Bohr's model of the atom to Erwin Schrödinger's more precise theory; charting different electron configurations in heavier atoms.
Ron B. Davis Jr.
