IIT JEE Revision - Laws of chemical combination

1 Importance of studying chemistry
2. Physical quantities and their S.I. units
3. Dimensional analysis
4. Measurement and significant figures
Accuracy
Accuracy is a measure of the difference between the true value (the value to be measured) and the value measured by an instrument.

Precision is depends totally on the instrument and it is the difference between measurements of the same dimension made number of times. It is expressed as the difference between one measurement and the arithmetic mean of the number of measurements.

Significant figures: Significant figures in a number are include all the certain digits plus one doubtful digit.

If a number has 4 significant figures or digits, it means 3 of them are certain and fourth one is doubtful.

Rules for determining the number of significant figures

1. All non-zero digits are significant
Decimal place does not determine the number of significant figures.

2. A zero becomes significant in case it comes between two non-zero numbers.
3. The zeros at the beginning of a number are not significant.
For example 0.0004 has only one significant figure.
4. All zeros placed to right of a number are significant. They represent the precision of the measuring scale.
For example 267.000 has six significant figures.
(The precision does not come by writing the number. It comes because the instrument has the ability to read a number certainly up to that level of measurement.)

Rules of calculations involving significant figures
Rule 1. The final result of addition or subtraction should be reported up to the same number of decimal places as are present in the term having the least number of decimal places.
Example- addition of three numbers
6.414
2.3
0.501
------
9.215  answer but the answer should be reported up to one decimal place only as 2.3 is the term having least number of decimal places.

Hence correct answer is 9.2

Rule 2. In multiplication or division, the final result should be reported up to the same number of significant figures as are present in the term with the least number of significant figures.
Example: 4.2345*1.25 = 5.293125
The final result should be reported up to three significant figures only as 1.25 has three significant figures. Hence the correct answer to be reported is 5.29.

Rounding off figures of retention of significant figures.

i) If the digit coming after the desired number of significant figures happens to be more than 5, the preceding digit or figure is increased by 1.
ii) If that digit is less than 5, it is neglected and hence the preceding significant figure remains unchanged.
iii) If that digit happens to be 5, the preceding digit is increased by one in case it is odd number. If preceding digit is an even number, it remains the same.

If the problem has number of steps, the rounding off is to be done at the final answer level only.

5. Chemical classification of matter
1. Element
Further classification: Metals, non-metals, metalloids
2. Compound
Further classification: Inorganic and organic
3. Mixture
Further classification: Homogeneous mixtures - they are called solutions.
Heterogeneous mixtures: They have visible boundaries of separation between the different constituents and they can be easily seen with naked eye.

6. Laws of chemical combination
a. Law of conservation of mass
During any physical o chemical change, the total mass of the products is equal to the total mass of reactants.

b. Law of constant proportions

A pure chemical compound always contains same elements combined together in the same definite proportion by weight.
c. Law of multiple proportions

When two elements combine to form two or more than two compounds, the weights of one of the elements which combine with a fixed weight of the other, bear a simple whole number ratio.

d. Law of reciprocal proportions
When two different elements combine separately with the same weight of a third element, the ratio in which they do so will be the same or some simple multiple of the ratio in which they combine with each other.

e. Gay Lussac’s law of combing volumes
Under similar conditions of temperature and pressure, whenever gases react together, the volumes of the reacting gases as well as products (if gases) bear a simple whole number ratio.