Chemistry with standard math (1 Viewer)

[greendaylover23]

Is it a bad idea to pick chemistry with standard math instead of advanced math?

 

[CM_Tutor]

There is no maths in chemistry that is beyond standard maths level. In my opinion, the difficulty that students have with the maths in chemistry has far more to do with it being explained in an overly complicated way than it has to do with the difficulty of the maths itself. This is not to say it won't be a challenge at times.

 

[dasfas]

There is no maths in chemistry that is beyond standard maths level. In my opinion, the difficulty that students have with the maths in chemistry has far more to do with it being explained in an overly complicated way than it has to do with the difficulty of the maths itself. This is not to say it won't be a challenge at times.

Completely agree with this.

Chemistry maths isn't hard because the maths is hard. The maths is literally just simple algebra that you've been doing since year 7. The difficulty is understanding the concepts behind the question and hence knowing what formulas to apply and why.

If you just do more practise problems that the people around you, you will be okay. There really aren't that many types of questions that are asked. Pretty much all titration questions are identical. Once it clicks, and it may take a while, you can do them super easily.

I recommend writing out the steps you need to solve each problem before you solve it.

Say you saw a simple titration question, you should write the following steps.

1) Determine how much of the base was added from the burette

2) Since we know the concentraiton of the base, hence determine the moles of the base added

3) We know the moles of base and acid are equal, hence n(base) = n(acid).

4) We know the initial volume of the acid, thus we can solve c(acid) = n/v.

Hence we have solved the problem.

See, dirt simple maths. It's basically just one equation, c = n/v.

If you can write this out each time, eventually, you will be able to remember the steps on how to solve a titration problem much faster. Then you just need to modify your steps slightly for harder problems.

 

[Drongoski]

I still think it's a better idea to do Maths Advanced! You will struggle with Standard, even if the maths in Chemistry is not that challenging; yes "dirt simple" for those already good in maths. The Standard students I know of struggle even with basic algebra (Yr 8, Yr 9 & Yr 10 level).

 

[Drongoski]

I take standard maths and chemistry and I’m doing fine

You're lucky. What year? Which Uni?

 

[greendaylover23]

Thank you so much for your help guys!! Makes me feel a lot better

 

[jazz519]

The maths in chemistry isn't really maths. In the sense of you aren't using anything from maths advanced or extension like derivatives

The difficulty in chemistry calculation problems arises from the understanding of the chemistry concepts rather than the maths aspect. If you look in the exams answers for example you will get some idea of the maths going on. It's mostly just subbing into formulas and rearranging things. The chemisty aspect of understanding the content comes into as you will need to know when to use a certain formula over others. By doing maths advanced you won't have an advantage in this respect.

However, the reason why someone might make a link between maths ability and chemistry ability is because although the content is different, the subjects use a common thought process in terms of the questions are problem based. So you have to apply learnt content or skills to calculations and other similar problems, which is also something you do in maths. That's why people who are taking higher levels of maths like extension will probably also do well in chemistry or physics HSC because the subjects use similar thinking processes in answering questions

 

[jazz519]

The main thing to overcome that is by doing lots of practice on exam questions. It's a subject that to do well you need to be doing consistent practice throughout the year even if you are doing the higher levels of maths. As it's not possible to start studying for it like 1 week before the exam due to the large variety of content. Based on the students who I've tutored, those that did standard maths who were diligent to their study, spent a lot of time doing practice questions and asking for help from teachers, tutors etc. when stuck ended up doing fairly well (high band 5 to low band 6).