Maths for Chemists
When chemists study reactions they ask question such as:
- How much?
- How fast?
- How far?
The theory of chemistry can give quantitative answers to these questions. In an advanced course you will study some of the theory and this means that you use mathematical ideas. The range of ideas is limited to:
- Direct and inverse proportion
- Significant figures
- Rearranging algebraic relationships
- Logarithms
- Indices
- Graphs
Teachers with the Nuffield Advanced Chemistry file of guidance
can let you have copies of a hand-out offering help with some of these ideas.
Tutorials
Webguides
Recently Asked Questions
- How do you work out the tangent of a graph? I know this isn't a strictly chemistry-related question but I need to plot tangents of my graphs of hydrochloric acid and magnesium to work out the activation energy.
- I have done an experiment to measure the enthalpy of combustion of some alcohols. If I have calculated the energy transferred to the water, the number of moles of fuel burnt and the mass of one mole of fuel, how do I calculate the enthalpy of combustion? Do I multiply the energy transferred to the water by the mass of one mole of fuel and then dividing this by the mass of fuel burnt or some other way around?
- How does 'y = mx + c' relate to the Arrhenius equation? Does it need to be rearranged or something?
updated: 19 January 2006
