Welcome to Chem 120 at Heartland Community College.
Day 1 - August 18, 2026
Passed out PowerPoint presentation slides as a printed packet.
Learning Objectives:
Express quantities properly, using a number and a unit.
Identify the different scales used for measuring temperature.
Apply equations to convert temperature units from one scale to another.
Topics Covered:
metric prefixes and the SI system
scientific notation to standard notation
multiply and divide with scientific notation on a calculator
add and subtract with scientific notation on a calculator
how to make a measurement - a number and a unit
accuracy vs precision
Covered slides #1-45 today
Review: Areas of Chemistry )
Measurements
Essential Math of Chemistry
Simple Math with Conversion Factors
Go over metric prefixes
M
Mega
1000000x
106
million
K
Kilo
1000x
103
thousand
Da
Deka
10x
101
ten
base
1x
100
one
d
deci-
0.1x
10-1
one tenth
c
centi-
0.01x
10-2
one-hundredth
m
milli-
0.001x
10-3
one-thousandth
m
micro-
0.000001x
10-6
one-millionth
n
nano-
0.000000001x
10-9
one-billionth
You are responsible to know these prefixes for the school
year:
Additionally,
1 cm3 = 1 mL = 1 cc
1 dm3 = 1 L
Conversion Factors
Practice solving dimensional analysis problems using
conversion factors.
Homework:
Student should print off Homework sheets - they are due Aug 27