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CHEM 1100: CHAPTER 1 TERMS
Shifting Baselines |
The idea that what people expect as "normal" on our planet has changed over time, especially with regard to ecosystems |
Sustainability |
Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs |
Triple Bottom Line |
Three-way measure of the success of a business based on its benefits to the economy, to society, and to the environment |
Cradle-to-grave |
an approach to analyzing the life cycle of an item, starting with the raw materials from which it came and ending with its ultimate disposal someplace, presumably on Earth. |
Cradle-to-cradle |
a regenerative approach to the use of things in which the end of the life cycle of one item dovetails with the beginning of the life cycle of another, so that everything is reused rather than disposed of as waste |
Ecological footprint |
a means of estimating the amount of biologically productive space (land, water, and sea surface) necessary to support a particular standard of living or lifestyle. The average U.S. Citizen's ecological footprint was 24 acres. |
Green Chemistry |
the design of chemical products and processes to use less energy, produce fewer hazardous materials, and use renewable resources whenever possible. The desired outcome is to produce less waste, especially toxic waste, and to use fewer resources. |
Mixture |
a physical combination of two or more pure substances present in variable amounts |
Percent |
parts per hundred |
respiration |
the foods we eat are metabolized to provide carbon dioxide and water |
PPM (Parts Per Million) |
One ppm is a unit of concentration 10,000 times smaller than 1% |
Particulat Matter (PM) |
a complex mixture of tiny solid particles and microscopic liquid droplets |
PM10 |
includes particles with an average diamater of 10µm or less, a length of 0.0004 inches |
PM2.5 |
is a subset of PM10 and includes particles with an average diameter of less than 2.5µm |
Risk Assessment |
the process of evaluating scientific data and making predictions in an organized matter about the probabilities of an outcome |
Toxicity |
the intrinsic (basic) health hazard of a substance |
exposure |
the amounts of the substance encountered |
ambient air |
the air surrounding us, the outside air |
µg |
a millionth of a gram (g), or 10-6 g |
Scientific Notation |
a system for writing numbers as products of a number and and 10 raised to the appropriate power (i.e. 1.5 X 104 |
PPB (Parts Per Billion) |
one part out of one billion, or 1000 times less concentrated than one part per billion |
Troposphere |
The lower region of the atmosphere in which we live that lies directly above the surface of the earth. About 75% of the earth is found within about 6 miles of the surface of our planet |
Mega Cities |
urban areas with 10 million people or more |
Element |
one of the 100 or so pure substances in our world from which compounds are formed. Only contain one type of atom (N2, O2, Ar) |
Compound |
a pure substance made up of two or more different elements in a fixed, characterisitc chemical combination (H2O, CO2, SO2) |
Chemical Symbols |
one or two letter abbreviations for the elements |
Periodic table |
an orderly arrangement of all the elements based on similarities in their properties |
Metals |
elements that are shiny and conduct electricity and heat well. (include iron, gold, & copper.) |
Non- Metals |
elements that do not conduct heat or electricity well and have no one characterisitc apperance (i.e., Chlorine, Oxygen) |
Metalloids (Semi-Metals) |
elements that lie between metals and non-metals on the periodic table and do not fall cleanly into either category |
Groups |
elements fall into vertical collumns. These organize elements according to important properties they have in common and are numbered from left to right. |
Halogen |
one of the reactive non-metals in Group 7A, such as flourine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br) or idoine (I) |
Noble Gas |
One of the inert elements in Group 8A that undergoes few, if any chemical reactions |
Atoms |
the smallest unit of an element that can exist as a stable, independent entity |
Nanotechnology |
refers to the creation of materials at the atomic and molecular (nanometer scale) 1nanometer (nm) = 1 X 10-9m |
Molecule |
two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds in a certain spatial arrangement |
A chemical formula |
a symbolic way to represent the elementart composition of a substance |
Diatomic molecule |
a molecule consisting of two atoms |
Hydrocarbons |
compounds made up of only hydrogen and carbon (ex., Methane, Ethane, Propane, and Butane) |
Combustion |
The chemical process of burning; the rapid combination of fuel with oxygen to release energy in the form of heat and light |
Chemical Reaction |
a process whereby substances described as reactants are transformed into different substances called products |
chemical equation |
a representation of a chemical reaction using chemical fromulas reactant(s) -> product (s) |
Law of Conservation of matter & mass |
in a chemical reaction, matter and mass are conserved |
Aerosols |
liquid and solid particles that remain suspended in the air rather than settling out |
Catalyst |
a chemical substance that participates in a chemical reaction and influences its rate without itself undergoing permanent change |
Volatile |
readily passes into the vapor phase; evaporates easily (Gas & Nail polish remover) |
Organic compound |
always contain carbon, almost always contains hydrogen, and may centain elements such as oxygen and nitrogen (Alvhol, sugar) |
Volatile Oganic Compounds (VOCs) |
Carbon- containing compounds that eaisly pass into the vapor phase |
Secondawry pollutant |
its is produced from chemical reactions involving one or more other pollutants (Ozone, NO3( |
tragedy of commons |
Rhe tragedy arises when a resources is common to all and used by many, but has no one in particular responsible for it. As a result, the resource may be destroyed by overuse to the detriment of all who use it |
carcinogenic |
capable of causing cancer |
Coalescents |
chemicals added to soften the latex particles in paint so that these particles spread to form a continuous film of uniform thickness |