CHEMISTRY 20A-1: CHEMICAL STRUCTUREWinter 2005Instructor: P. M. Felker, 4077A Young Hall, 206-6924, [email protected] Hours: M and W at 1 pm in 4077A Young Hall and on the web through VirtualOffice Hours at http://voh.chem.ucla.edu under 20A.Teaching Assistants: Kieche Meleson. 206-0292, [email protected]. Office HoursM at 11 am and Th at 12 noon in 1343 Young Hall.Rachel Stephenson. 825-8651, [email protected]. Office Hours T at 10 am in 1049Young Hall and W at 10 am in 3114 Molecular Sciences.Lectures: MWF at 9 to 9:50 am in CS24Regular attendance at lectures is highly recommended. The aim of the lectures is to guidestudents in their studies and to clarify, emphasize, and illustrate the important conceptsand their applications. Also, topics not covered in the text might be covered in the lectures.Finally, important announcements may be made during lectures.Discussion Section: Students must be enrolled in a Discussion Section. The DiscussionSection serves several purposes. Chief among them is to provide a setting for students toperfect problem-solving skills and to ask questions in an environment less forbidding thanduring Lecture.Prerequisites: CH 20A is the first course in introductory chemistry. It is assumed thatstudents are familiar with elementary concepts in chemistry, physics, and mathematics,such as the periodic table, chemical reaction equations, the mole, molecular weights, kineticand potential energy, Newton’s laws, Coulomb’s law, significant figures, units, exponentials,logarithms, algebra, etc.Texts: The required text is Chemical Principles, 5th Edition, by Zumdahl. It is availableat the ASUCLA bookstore. An optional study guide is also available there.Reading and Homework: For each week there is a reading assignment and a problem-set assignment. It is desirable that students read the assigned material before the materialis covered in lecture. Homework will not be graded. However, it is essential for stu-dents to get extensive practice in working problems pertaining to the coursematerial. The assigned problems represent a bare minimum that should be mastered bythose students that hope to learn the material and do well in the course.Examinations: There will be two 50-minute open-book examinations. These are sched-uled for Friday, February 4 and Friday, March 4 during regular lecture period. The FinalExamination (also open book) is scheduled for Friday, March 18 from 11:30 am to 2:30pm (room to be announced). No make-up exams will be given. A legitimate reason formissing a midterm must be discussed with the professor, preferably prior to the exam.If approved, a midterm grade will be assigned based on performance on similar materialcontained on the final exam. No one will be permitted to take the final exam at any timeother than the scheduled time. No one can pass the course without taking one midtermand the final exam. Incomplete course grades will be given only in the case of a seriousmedical emergency.Grading: The final grades will be based solely on exam grades according to the following:Midterm Exams – 50% (20% for low score, 30% for high score), Final Exam – 50%. Thecourse is graded on a curve.Web Access: Handouts will be posted to the virtual office hours (VOH) web site:http://voh.chem.ucla.edu under 20A. Questions posted to VOH will be addressed on theweb site or in class or office hours.Academic Dishonesty: Any student caught cheating on any aspect of this course willreceive a grade of “F” for the entire course and will be referred to the Dean of Studentsfor disciplinary action.Course Material: Chemical structure is fundamentally determined by the principles ofquantum mechanics and how those priniciples govern the interactions between the micro-scopic particles – electrons, protons, neutrons – that compose atoms and molecules. Thiscourse deals principally with the application of elementary quantum mechanics to the elu-cidation of atomic and molecular structure and to the understanding of the physical andchemical properties of atoms and molecules. We start with a brief review of chemical con-cepts that should be familiar from high-school chemistry. We then move to a considerationof the general nature of quantum mechanics. Following this we examine atomic structurewith quantum mechanical tools. Finally, we consider chemical bonding and develop anunderstanding of the ways in which atoms come together to form molecules. The materialto be covered comprises Chaps. 1—3, 12—14, 16, 20, and 22 in Zumdahl (see