A Level Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of atoms and compounds - their composition, structure, properties, behaviour and the changes they undergo during a reaction.  Chemists use experiments and knowledge to develop medicines, foods, fabrics and other materials, from neon lights to shatterproof glass.  They also use it to understand the world around us, from why leaves change colour to discovering invisible pollutants in the air.

The first part of the course will look at physical chemistry.  It was only about a century ago that scientists began to discover the nature of atoms, for example, that they were built up from smaller particles.  This led to an understanding of how atoms are held together, why the arrangement of the Periodic Table makes sense, and how the properties of elements and compounds can be explained.

The next part of the course will look at the Periodic Table of elements, which contains all the elements so far discovered.  We will examine how the properties of the elements are related to their electronic structures and how this determines their position in the Periodic Table.

The last part of the course will look at organic chemistry, which is the study of compounds based on carbon chains.  Carbon has the ability to bond in chains which may be straight, branched, or in rings, forming millions of different compounds, many of which are naturally occurring in nature.