Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña
Facultad de ciencias y tecnologías
Subject:
Technical English (Lex 115-01)
Name and enrollment:
Greiny Vargas (20-1305)
Topic:
Molecule
Teacher:
Nepturne Merant
City and date:
Santo Domingo (25/10/2021)
1.. Read the article and watch the video then give a brief summary.
What is a molecule?
A molecule is a set of atoms (of the same chemical element or of many different ones) that are
organized and interrelated through chemical bonds. A molecule is also considered to be the smallest
part of a substance that still retains the physical and chemical properties of the substance. The
molecules are usually chemically stable and electrically neutral.
The state of aggregation of a substance depends for the most part on the structure and types of atoms
that make up its molecules, since these determine the forces of interactions between these particles. In
this sense, solids are compounds that have very little separation between their molecules, liquids have a
medium or intermediate separation between their molecules and gases have a lot of separation
between their molecules.
The study of molecules and their nomenclature not only includes the number of atoms that compose
them and the properties they present, but also their understanding from a three-dimensional model of
their bonds and structures, that is, of the organization in the space of its constituent atoms. This means
that there are molecules that have the same atomic composition but different spatial structures (and
that is why these molecules are named differently).
Some examples of common molecules are:
• Oxygen: O2
• Hydrochloric acid: HCl
• Carbon monoxide: CO
• Sulfuric acid: H2SO4
• Ethanol: C2H5OH
• Phosphoric acid: H3PO4
• Glucose: C6H12O6
• Chloroform: CHCl3
• Sucrose: C12H22O11
• Para-aminobenzoic acid: C7H7NO2
• Acetone: C3H6O
• Cellulose: (C6H10O5) n
• Trinitrotoluene: C7H5N3O6
• Silver nitrate: AgNO3
• Urea: CO (NH2) 2
• Ammonia: NH3
Chemical formula types
The chemical formula for a molecule uses a single line of chemical element symbols, numbers, and
sometimes also other symbols, such as parentheses, dashes, brackets, and plus (+) and minus (−) signs.
These are limited to a single typographic line of symbols, which may include subscripts and superscripts.
A compound's empirical formula is a very simple type of chemical formula. It is the simplest integer ratio
of the chemical elements that constitute it. For example, water is always composed of a 2:1 ratio of
hydrogen to oxygen atoms, and ethyl alcohol or ethanol is always composed of carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen in a 2:6:1 ratio. However, this does not determine the kind of molecule uniquely – dimethyl
ether has the same ratios as ethanol, for instance. Molecules with the same atoms in different
arrangements are called isomers. Also carbohydrates, for example, have the same ratio
(carbon:hydrogen:oxygen = 1:2:1) (and thus the same empirical formula) but different total numbers of
atoms in the molecule.
The molecular formula reflects the exact number of atoms that compose the molecule and so
characterizes different molecules. However different isomers can have the same atomic composition
while being different molecules.
The empirical formula is often the same as the molecular formula but not always. For example, the
molecule acetylene has molecular formula C2H2, but the simplest integer ratio of elements is CH.
2. Complete the following sentences with past simple or present perfect.
sw am
last summer: I .
w ent
this month: he .
hasn't w alked
since Monday: he .
rained
four days ago: it .
played
this weekend: we .
broke
when I was five: I .
came
yesterday: the swallows .
haven't been
in my life: I .
didn't see
today: he .
did they ride
in 1919: ..?
haven't made
until now: you .
have arrived
already: they .
had
when we lived there: we .
hasn't w on
so far: my team .
