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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2001  > August  >
In the Classroom
Chemical Principles Revisited
Making Assumptions Explicit: How the Law of Conservation of Matter Can Explain Empirical Formula Problems
Stephen DeMeo
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Hunter College of CUNY, New York, NY 10021
Cover
August 2001
Vol. 78 No. 8
p. 1050
Abstract
The law of conservation of matter plays an important part in the story of the determination of the empirical formula of a compound. Utilizing the law of conservation could promote student understanding of this subject by providing the rationale for many of the procedural steps used to solve empirical formula problems. This is an argument for linking theory to method. It is not pedagogically sound for students to simply go through a series of steps and arrive at an answer without knowing why these steps can be performed, what assumptions they rest on, and how they relate to other chemical concepts. With this in mind, a table was constructed that explicitly connects theoretical assumptions of conservation to the procedural steps followed by introductory students when determining the empirical formula of an unknown compound.
More Information
*  Citation
 DeMeo, Stephen. J. Chem. Educ. 2001 78 1050.
*  Keywords
 Curriculum; Descriptive Chemistry; Introductory / High School Chemistry; Stoichiometry
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 July 10, 2001
August 31, 2005
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