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or whatever you want to call it. Its about to start. I dont know what to expect other than derivatives, and lots of math. Maybe none of you could help me with what to expect as each school seems to have a different version of this class. But I would like to hear stories of your Pchem class as it seems to be the character revealing class for chem people.
Stories?...
Stories?...
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Washington
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Unsu...
Not a helpful post
Thu, August 30, 2007 - 9:19 AMLike you said, it depends on who is teaching it.
It can be heavy on concepts or deriving equations and math. It really isn't as bad as some ppl make it seem. I recommend McQuarrie and Simon's "Physical Chemistry: A molecular Approach" if it is not your text. I really prefer it to Atkins' which a lot of schools use.
Disclaimer: I'm finishing up my PhD in physical chem.
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Re: Pchem..
Sat, September 29, 2007 - 3:55 PMI will not place questions from textbooks here. ever. I just find it inappropriate. So when I ask a question it will be from my head, not from a textbook.
That said, IM trying to figure out partial derivatives. My pchem book(silbey, 4th ed.) doesnt go into them but does use them. My calc book so far isnt giving up the answers Ive been strangling it for. I havent had a chance to go throw myself onto the feet of the nearest math lab person. I like to use all resources at once and build pictures from those many sources.
Do you know of any good tutorials? good trade back books? tribes? This will be a learning experience. -
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Re: Pchem..
Tue, October 2, 2007 - 11:50 AMCan you give us an example of what is troubling you? Two possibilities come to mind, one is easy the other is a whole set of courses. -
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Re: Pchem..
Tue, October 2, 2007 - 2:08 PMOff the top of my head id say partial differentials. But a more in depth answer would be Im not prepared for the math. This isnt a chemistry class. The only chemistry involved so far are the words "gas" "van der waals" "liquid" and "atom" and those are all secondary to the eqns the prof is writing down on the board. I understand and a reasonable level how to do integrals, but my classes have not taught me to know partials, and only partially taught me what a state function is.
Im whining, I know. I will get through this, I will succeed, but right now Im floundering in a sea of equations the prof has told us we need to know, but he hasnt taught us them, only written them down and shown how to do it once. -
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Unsu...
Re: Pchem..
Tue, October 2, 2007 - 4:58 PMpartials, in terms of what you will need to know, just means you take the derivative with respect to one thing while holding everything else constant.
d [f(x,y,z,t)] / dt means take the derivativeof of f(x,y,z,t) with respect to to "t " while holding everything else constant
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Re: Pchem..
Sat, October 6, 2007 - 7:47 PMIn words instead of equation, a partial derivative tells how the dependent variable changes when you change just one of the several variables it depends on.
If you have p=nRT/v,
for the partial of p with respect to T, you treat n and v as constants, so
dp/dT = nR/v
and if you want to know how p changes when you change v and keep everything else constant,
dp/dv = -nRT/v**2 (v**2 is v squared)
When I took Pchem, the professor's interest was research, not teaching, so I figured it was up to me if I wanted to learn it. I just did lots of the odd problems, cause they had the answers in the back. You are doing right to clear up confusion early. Keep that up and you'll do fine. -
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Sat, October 6, 2007 - 11:01 PMyoure words about partials are in sync with others. Ive processed that exact eqn, and I have grokked it.
My prof has said to me "yay verily mathew, I will not give vanderwaals eqns on the test because it would be too long. Yay verily I shall not ask for varial(sic) coeffecients because it would take too long. I shall not give you partial derivatives, because the students are not not educated enough. Thus verily i shall only give you ideal gas questions that see if you understand the zeroth and first law of thermodynamics verily. And thus to see if you can do algebra. yay verily."
And it was so. I have an exam on friday that I will be doing lots of ideal gas question answering to prepare for. I can make my own cheat sheet. SO I should prep for the eqn's, but for the understanding of when I should use each.
BTW, this prof retired three quarters ago. I think he doesnt care anymore. -
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Unsu...
Re: Pchem..
Fri, October 12, 2007 - 6:41 PMPchem made my hair turn gray.
Seriously.
Good luck, and study hard! -
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Re: Pchem..
Sat, October 13, 2007 - 9:21 AMIf your skin turned silver we'd have known you have an ald hyde.
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Tue, January 1, 2008 - 6:35 PMOk.
Im back. Now Im in Second quarter Pchem, or at least I will be on monday. Ive built in two hours of study time in the mornings for study. Mornings are my best time for acquisition of new knowledge.
The Prof I have is notorious for making it so Chemistry majors give up chemsitry and instead go for a biology degree. Not saying it happens all the time, just enough that the students coming in hear the tales of horror.
Ok, so the class Im going into is tough. big deal. But it took me two trys to pass calculus two, so Im a little worried that my maths arent strong enough to handle pchem two. Its a real worry I know. But I will pass it. But will I pass it in one try? Id like to have a job by '09, so one try is much preferred.
Any words of advice? I hear I'll be dealing with hamiltonian functions, and quantum mechanics. Is it so? I think Im going to need to memorize these equations. Thats the kind of Professor he is. Ive had him before.
sigh. -
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Re: Pchem..
Tue, January 1, 2008 - 7:17 PMQuantum mech is one side of pchem. Where I went to school it was to different classes but each school is different. The math for quantum at your level is surprisingly simple - as you are given both the problem and it's solutions (anything else would require you to be an advanced math or a 1st yr physics grad student). -
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Re: Pchem..
Sat, January 5, 2008 - 3:01 PMThis really should be in a different post, but its here, and so am I, so..
One thing about this education degree that Im upset with. What with Pchem, Ochem, Genchem, env chem, calc I-II, physics, quant, lab classes, and the like, I do feel a little disappointed that its a Bachelor of arts degree. I would like to take some more classes and just get the bloody BS.
Ive just finished a psych test that I paid for, and the short of it is that Im smart, but I focus a little too much. I need to learn to be more flexible, and multi task a little better.
It should be interesting to find out how a rigid thinking, but subgenius handles pchem for the first time. Maybe my attempts at being flexible could help me. We'll see. -
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Re: Pchem..
Sat, January 5, 2008 - 3:43 PMNo offense, you sound like a typical geek... you'll do just fine. The real issue for a would be teacher is how are your social skills? Those will be more important then the fact that you are a poor multi-tasker or tend to overfocus.
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Tue, January 15, 2008 - 9:34 PMFirst week done. Now I still have the Homework to turn in. Its tougher than IM used to but not as hard as I thought. I am pounding my head against kinetics problems. Boy am i seeing the old man behind the curtain in these equations. Lots of differentials, taylor series, derivitives, integrals, rearrangements, identities, and just plain cheating laws of the universe, just so the dam eqn comes out right. Each week I will be receiving 15 more eqns. Each week I will learn about how to answer the problems a day in advance. Each week I will learn lots. I like it, but I fear it.
Any ways, I WILL pass it.
Did I tell you we will be covering only three chapters over the next eleven weeks? -
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Sun, February 17, 2008 - 8:14 PMOK. SO here i am studying for (actually procrastinating)Pchem second qrtrs second exam. Ive talked to The Prof, and he has said that this class is comparable with other Pchem classes at other schools. Good. Id hate to be under par ability, and some lazy a** part of me doesnt like having to to beyond normal so I can teach 9th graders the three laws of motion, and teach 12th graders some rate laws. Thats just the whinging part, so we can ignore HIM.
SO we are nearing the end of the intro to quantum mechanics, in the silbey, alberty, bawendi pchem text. Homework questions are nicely original; things like_ Determine the classical turning points for a harmonic oscillator in the ground state._Find an integral expression for the probability that the particle will be in the classicalally forbidden region for the ground state.
This has been the easiest HW yet. I was surprised by the brevity of the work that needed doing. Now all I need is to be ready for the exam on friday. That'll occur by me memorizing many hamiltonians. -
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Thu, February 21, 2008 - 5:33 PMI took an impromptu poll of the class. ! said the homeworks were too hard as they recieved a 25% on the last one. One said that that the teacher was nicer than he originally thought. All of the students require a .7 or higher to pass the class for their degree. Except myself. I require a 2.0 for my education degree. that sounds like whining doesnt it. Its not. Just the reason why I NEED to do well on all the tests and Homeworks. We're having a exam on Quantum Mechanics tomorrow and Im trying to memorize all the hamiltonians, and the wave functions for ground state and first excited state. SO far Im looking at somewhere around a 2.4 . I could do better. My excuse for not doing better is my being a dad to kids, a husband, and NOT a good math student.
Any suggestions about how to study or memorize these eqns? -
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Re: Pchem..
Thu, February 21, 2008 - 5:43 PMYes. Don't.
Relax and get a good night's sleep. As an education student you should know that cramming doesn't work, you'll forget most of what you study tonight by morning which will stress you out during the exam. You know it, have faith in yourself. -
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Re: Pchem..
Thu, February 21, 2008 - 9:52 PMAlright then.
Its 9:52.
G'night. -
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Unsu...
Re: Pchem..
Fri, February 22, 2008 - 8:08 PMMy mid-term routine from back in the day:
1 good night's sleep
45 minutes before exam: 1 double latte
15 minutes before exam: 1-2 chocolate bars
5 minutes before exam: Blank mind and enter Zen state
College GPA: 3.7
Word,
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Re: Pchem..
Sat, February 23, 2008 - 3:24 AMInteresting method. IM not surprised it works.I have a simliar method. A good nights sleep after studying till ten. Eat a good breakfast, go to school and peruse lightly some eqn's. Eat a banana, some wintergreen mints, and a coffee, then take test. Be calm and let the eqns flow onto a piece of paper. sometimes in test format, and sometimes just onto the cover sheet. I know cramming doesnt work. But I fell if I cant recall a eqn then I need to look at it again and try one. more. time. -
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Fri, March 7, 2008 - 8:46 PMHomestretch. I think. We have covered about 2.5 chapters. or as I should say as this is what I have learned the last couple months, Ive learned the squared of Psi sub insanity(s) star('cause its a complex conjugate) for the expectation of (K)nowledge, being over all space with the spherical harmonic. But unfortunately i need to do an estimate with the variation theory of the ground state energy of my GONADS, within .002%!
Im hallucinating refelctions on my windowsill.
This is not good.
Is it over yet?
OOPS! I forgot to give the limits, of 2asubnought, to infinity.
I think Ive about lost it. -
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Re: Pchem..
Sat, March 8, 2008 - 6:56 AMNay, you haven't lost it yet. When it all makes sense then you might have lost it.... -
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Sat, March 8, 2008 - 9:09 AMTruth. That meshes with what Ive heard. Im a bit better now, as I have a good solid day since the last time Ive thrown my will against pchem problems. Its not that theyre extremely difficult, its that everytime I encounter a task that is harder than I can do in my head, I have to overcome a little hump inside me that wants to be lazy. SO the longer the problem seems, the bigger the internal hurdle. After a quarter of doing that my will is getting a little tired. But Im still strong enough to make myself do it. Its just tiring.
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