Chapter 1, Problem 1.1E

You have two distinct gaseous compounds made from element X and element Y. The mass percents are as follows: Compound I: 30.43% X, 69.57% Y Compound II: 63.64% X, 36.36% Y In their natural standard states, element X and element Y exist as gases. (Monatomic? Diatomic? Triatomic? That is for you to determine.) When you react gas X with gas Y to make the products, you get the following data (all at the same pressure and temperature): 1. volume gas X + 2 volumes gas Y2 volumes compound I 2. volumes gas X + 1 volume gas Y2 volumes compound II Assume the simplest possible formulas for reactants and products in the chemical equations above. Then, determine the relative atomic masses of element X and element Y.

A heavy steel ball is suspended by a thin wire. The ball is hit from the side with a hammer but hardly moves. Describe what you think would happen if this identical experiment were carried out on the moon.

Marie Curie was born in Poland but studied and carried out her research in Paris. In 1903, she shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with H. Becquerel and her husband Pierre for their discovery of radioactivity. (In 1911 she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of two new chemical elements, radium and polonium, the latter named for her homeland, Poland.) They and others observed that a radioactive substance could emit three types of radiation: alpha (), beta (), and gamma (). If the radiation from a radioactive source is passed between electrically charged plates, some particles are attached to the positive plate, some to the negative plate, and others feel no attraction. Which particles are positively charged, which are negatively charged, and which have no charge? Of the two charged particles, which has the most mass? Radioactivity. Alpha (), beta I(), and gamma () rays from a radioactive element are separated by passing them between electrically charged plates.