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Topic: What is physical chemistry?  (Read 1347 times)

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Offline michealyounger

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What is physical chemistry?
« on: October 17, 2019, 06:00:34 PM »
I hope this is the right sub to ask. I'm a chemical engineering major and am gonna be taking the 2 course sequence of physical chemistry starting next semester. I've heard that it's essentially general chemistry on steroids, but can someone please elaborate? (And yes, I've heard that it's incredibly difficult)

Offline Corribus

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Re: What is physical chemistry?
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2019, 09:56:43 AM »
The major topics covered usually include:

Quantum mechanics (molecular/atomic structure, bonding, spectroscopy)
Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics (bulk properties of matter, gas laws, entropy/enthalpy)
Reaction kinetics (rate laws, transition state theory, equilibrium, diffusion)

Pretty heavy on the math, basically a physics course applied to chemistry principles.

What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?  - Richard P. Feynman

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