CHEMISTRY 20A 1 CHEMICAL STRUCTURE Winter 2005 Instructor P M Felker 4077A Young Hall 206 6924 felker chem ucla edu Office Hours M and W at 1 pm in 4077A Young Hall and on the web through Virtual Office Hours at http voh chem ucla edu under 20A Teaching Assistants Kieche Meleson 206 0292 kmeleson chem ucla edu Office Hours M at 11 am and Th at 12 noon in 1343 Young Hall Rachel Stephenson 825 8651 rachels chem ucla edu Office Hours T at 10 am in 1049 Young Hall and W at 10 am in 3114 Molecular Sciences Lectures MWF at 9 to 9 50 am in CS24 Regular attendance at lectures is highly recommended The aim of the lectures is to guide students in their studies and to clarify emphasize and illustrate the important concepts and 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 Discussion Section serves several purposes Chief among them is to provide a setting for students to perfect problem solving skills and to ask questions in an environment less forbidding than during Lecture Prerequisites CH 20A is the first course in introductory chemistry It is assumed that students are familiar with elementary concepts in chemistry physics and mathematics such as the periodic table chemical reaction equations the mole molecular weights kinetic and 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 available at the ASUCLA bookstore An optional study guide is also available there Reading and Homework For each week there is a reading assignment and a problemset assignment It is desirable that students read the assigned material before the material is covered in lecture Homework will not be graded However it is essential for students to get extensive practice in working problems pertaining to the course material The assigned problems represent a bare minimum that should be mastered by those 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 scheduled for Friday February 4 and Friday March 4 during regular lecture period The Final Examination also open book is scheduled for Friday March 18 from 11 30 am to 2 30 pm room to be announced No make up exams will be given A legitimate reason for missing 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 material contained on the final exam No one will be permitted to take the final exam at any time other than the scheduled time No one can pass the course without taking one midterm and the final exam Incomplete course grades will be given only in the case of a serious medical 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 The course 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 the web site or in class or office hours Academic Dishonesty Any student caught cheating on any aspect of this course will receive a grade of F for the entire course and will be referred to the Dean of Students for disciplinary action Course Material Chemical structure is fundamentally determined by the principles of quantum mechanics and how those priniciples govern the interactions between the microscopic particles electrons protons neutrons that compose atoms and molecules This course deals principally with the application of elementary quantum mechanics to the elucidation of atomic and molecular structure and to the understanding of the physical and chemical properties of atoms and molecules We start with a brief review of chemical concepts that should be familiar from high school chemistry We then move to a consideration of the general nature of quantum mechanics Following this we examine atomic structure with quantum mechanical tools Finally we consider chemical bonding and develop an understanding of the ways in which atoms come together to form molecules The material to be covered comprises Chaps 1 3 12 14 16 20 and 22 in Zumdahl see below