Reading Guide
for the Oxidation and Reduction unit

Chapter 4: Chemical Reactions

We looked at this chapter earlier, in the reactions and equilibrium unit. Then, we went through pages 67–75. We stopped at redox reactions, because we are going to address those reactions now! So, let’s pick up where we left off.

pp. 76–77. Redox Reactions. Page 76 does not really tell us anything about redox reactions, so you can just glance at it. It just sets the stage for what is to follow. Page 77 has one important piece of information on it. This is the concept of oxidation and reduction processes.

• What does it mean to say that a substance becomes oxidized?
• What does it mean to say that a substance becomes reduced?

(I won’t call them oxidation or reduction reactions, because they do not happen in isolation! Whenever one thing becomes oxidized, something else becomes reduced. It’s sort of a conservation of electrons rule.)

p. 78. Oxidation Numbers. This page tells you how to find the oxidation number of an atom in a molecule. This is important!

p. 79. This works you through some examples of finding oxidation numbers.

p. 80, above the box, reviews the concepts of oxidation and reduction. Make sure it makes sense to you.

pp. 80–84. This steps you through analyzing the gunpowder explosion reaction. Check how they balance the reaction equation on page 81. Then they introduce sulfur to the reaction to give a bigger bang…Oh well, you can skip that stuff.

Chapter 11: Electrochemistry

Most of this chapter is fairly advanced stuff that we will not have time to address thoroughly. So, I’ll try to point out the prominent landmarks on our way to the end of the semester.

p. 209. The promise here is that redox reactions can be harnessed, using the transferred electrons to run through a circuit as electric current as they travel from the thing that gets oxidized to the thing that gets reduced.

pp. 210–211. Redox Redux. Page 210 reviews what we have already seen. Page 211 extends the discussion to any old chemical that changes its oxidation number. Note the example in the book of zinc reacting with a copper salt in solution! You will do two similar reactions in class before the semester is over. It turns out that lots of metals are happy to displace copper from a salt.

You can disregard the rest of this chapter.

Printer-friendly PDF version of this reading guide