After investigating some of the ck-12 modalities, the first major thing I learned was about conversion between units of measurement. I never knew how easy it could potential be using the simple fractions strategy. Not to mention the metric system compared the standard used in America is totally different, which does not make life any easier. The technique is formally called dimensional analysis, and I believe we has some practice with it in class. Dimensional analysis is a nifty strategy that is used for things ranging from scientists building atomic bombs to chefs whipping up meals.
Another interesting thing I learned more about are derived units. The definition of a derived unit is a unit that results from a mathematical combination of SI base units. A couple examples of measurement that require derived units would be volume (m^3), speed (m/s^2) and density (kg/m^3). The cool thing is that calculations involving derived units follow the same principles as other unit conversion calculations. I found some more information about density that I found intriguing as well. Density is the ratio of mass in an object to its volume. the equation to calculate density for a given object is Density = mass/volume. Density is measured in kg/m^3 typically, this is a derived unit. Out of the three main states of matter, solid, liquid, and gas, gas is the least dense.
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The first thing that interested me when navigation through the ck12 modalities was that we are all technically chemists. This is because a lot things we do in our daily lives actually are chemical reactions. Things such as eating, drinking, breathing, and moving are all possible because of chemical reactions in our bodies. Another related Idea that interested me was that all matter is made of some type of chemicals, therefor chemistry is the study of everything.
Before starting this, I did not know that there were so many different branches of chemistry.The five main areas of study are physical chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and biochemistry. I think it is cool that there are all of these sub genres because chemistry is a large field of study and it needs to be broken up somehow.
The fourth thing that made an impression on me was that even today we do not have a definite definition of what energy is, rather we only know a lot about what it does. Energy comes in many different forms like potential energy and kinetic energy. Kinetic is energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion and potential is the energy possessed by a body by virtue of its position relative to others, by definition. The last thing that left an impression on me was when I was looking at the history of chemistry module. I learned that the first big breakthrough was 2,300 years ago and that I would have more knowledge about atomic theory than scientists 100 years ago.
