This work was created by Dr Jamie Love and Creative Commons Licence licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
In this sample, only the first Ancient Element (AIR) is available. The other Elements, WATER, EARTH and FIRE, are included in the complete hypertextbook, and each of those Elements are about twice as long as AIR. To learn more about the course and hypertextbook, visit the Principles of Alchemy (Chemistry) website.

AIR
Self Evaluation Test

Dr Jamie Love 1997 - 2010

Choose the best answer by selecting one of the buttons.
When you choose an answer you will get a "pop-up" response indicating whether you got it right or wrong. I suggest that the first time you take the test, you simply stick with your original answers, complete the test and submit it for a grade. This will give you an idea of what you have learned so far and is more like a "regular" test (whatever that is). Your answers will be graded and each one will be scored Correct or Wrong. Once you have the score and the list of incorrect answers you can use your "Back Button" to return to your exam and correct your errors. This time, this second time, you can carefully read each response, learn from it and choose the right answer. Students receiving a perfect score will be awarded a Certificate of Completion.
Important note : on some browsers (like some Internet Explorers) when you use the page down button to scroll down you will end up shifting your checked answer to the next one down the line! If that happens to you, use your mouse to scroll - not the keyboard.


AIR 1 : What is the smallest unit of matter to keep its identity as a chemical element?

Atoms.
Elements.
Protons.
Electrons.

AIR 2 : What defines the atom (or element) and gives it its chemical properties?

Electrons.
Protons.
Isotopes.
Transmutation.

AIR 3 : The number of protons in the atom is called the ...

Dalton.
nucleon.
atomic mass.
atomic number.

AIR 4 : Which of the following is NOT a type of radiation?

Transmutation.
Gamma rays.
Alpha particles.
Beta particles.

AIR 5 : Which of these atoms is NOT an isotope of the other three?

1H
2H
3He
3H

AIR 6 : Consider this atom N+2 with an atomic number of 7. Which of the statements below is correct?

This atom has 7 protons and 2 electrons.
This atom has 7 electrons and 2 protons.
This atom has 7 nucleons.
This atom has 7 protons and 5 electrons.

AIR 7 : I've made up a "mythical" atom (one that doesn't really exist, but which follows all the rules you've learned) with the abbreviation "M". With ALL its electrons removed M has a mass of 120 Daltons and a charge of +50. How many protons, neutrons and nucleons does M have?

M has 120 protons, 50 neutrons and a total of 170 nucleons.
M has 50 protons, 50 neutrons and a total of 120 nucleons.
M has 50 protons, 70 neutrons and a total of 120 nucleons.
M has 70 protons, 50 neutrons and a total of 120 nucleons.

AIR 8 : My mythical atom M with a mass of 120 Daltons transmutated into another atom I'll abbreviate as "N". N has a charge of +48 when stripped of ALL its electrons and a mass of 116 Daltons. What kind of radiation was given off during the transmutation?

Delta radiation.
Beta radiation.
Gamma radiation.
Alpha radiation.

AIR 9 : Half-life is ...

the length of time required for half the amount of a radioisotope to decay.
37 billion disintegrations per second.
one disintegration per second.
the number of Curies per gram of a substance (Ci/gram).

AIR 10 : I started with 100 atoms of M but an hour later I had only 50 Ms and 50 Ns that seemed to appear out of nowhere! And an hour after that, I had 25 Ms and 75 Ns. What is the half-life of M?

One hour.
Two hours.
Half an hour.
Four hours.

AIR 11: Assume you have 4 grams of radioactive water and it is producing 148 billion beta particles per second. (Wow, now that is "hot water"!) What is the specific activity of that water? ]

[Hint : remember to use Curies per gram as your units of measurement.]

148 billion (Curies / gram).
38.5 billion (Curies / gram).
4 (Curies / gram).
1 (Curies / gram).

AIR 12 : An electron cloud is ...

a plasma.
the volume around the atom in which its electrons are likely to be found.
a sphere.
figure-8-shaped.

AIR 13 : The image on the right shows you three views (along all three axes) of which kind of orbital?

s orbital.
K-shell.
L-shell.
p orbital.

AIR 14: Starting with the innermost (smallest) shell and working outward, which is the correct order of atomic shells?

A, B, C and D.
K, L, M and N.
M, N, L and K.
s, p, d and f.

AIR 15 : Pauli's exclusion principle says ...

no more than two electrons may occupy a single orbital (subshell).
if two electrons do occupy a single orbital, their spins will be opposite to each other.
both of the above.
when more than one orbital is available for occupation (because they are of the same energy) electrons occupy separate orbitals and do so with the same (parallel) spin.

AIR 16 : Which shell holds up to 18 electrons?

K-shell.
L-shell.
M-shell.
N-shell.

AIR 17 : Choose the correct pair (below) to fill in these two blanks (in the correct order). Shells define the _____ of an atom and orbitals define the _______ of the atom’s electronic cloud.

mass, shape
size, mass
shape, size
size, shape

AIR 18 : Beryllium has an atomic number of 4. Choose the correct description (below) of its electrons.

[Hint : take your time with this. First consider the shells it has, figure out the orbitals in each shell and then fill those shells keeping in mind what Pauli and Hund taught us.]

The K-shell has 2 electrons (s2) and the L-shell has only 2 electrons (s2).
The K-shell has 2 electrons (s2) and the L-shell has only 2 electrons - one in the s orbital (s1) and one in one of the p orbitals (p1).
The K-shell has 1 electrons (s1) and the L-shell has the other 3 electrons each in a separate p orbital (x-p1, y-p1, z-p1).
The K-shell has 2 electrons (s2) and the other 2 electrons each in a separate p orbital (x-p1, y-p1 or x-p1, z-p1 or y-p1, z-p1).

AIR 19 : Fluorine has an atomic number of 9. Choose the correct description (below) of its electrons.

The K-shell has 2 electrons (s2) and the L-shell has 2 electrons (s2) with the rest distributed as x-p1, y-p1, z-p1)
The K-shell has 2 electrons (s2) and the L-shell has 2 electrons (s2) with the rest distributed as x-p2, y-p2, z-p1 (or x-p2, y-p1, z-p2 or x-p1, y-p2, z-p2).
The K-shell has 1 electrons (s1) and the L-shell has 2 electrons (s2) with the rest distributed as . x-p2, y-p2, z-p2.
The K-shell has 8 electrons (s2, x-p2, y-p2, z-p2) and one electron in the L-shell as s1.

AIR 20 : Potassium has an atomic number of 19. Choose the correct description (below) of its electrons.

[Please note that potassium does not have a “strange” electron arrangement like calcium. Just follow the rules you know and understand and you will come to the answer. This is a HARD ONE so take your time and think it through.]

The K-shell has 2 electrons (s2) , the L-shell has 8 electrons (s2, x-p2, y-p2, z-p2) with the remaining 9 electrons in the M-shell distributed as s2 then x-p3, y-p2, z-p2 (or x-p2, y-p2, z-p3 or x-p2, y-p2, z-p2).
The K-shell has 8 electrons (s2, x-p2, y-p2, z-p2), the L-shell has 8 electrons (s2, x-p2, y-p2, z-p2) with the remaining 3 electrons in the M-shell are distributed as s2, x-p1 (or y-p1 or z-p1).
The K-shell has 2 electrons (s2) , the L-shell has 8 electrons (s2, x-p2, y-p2, z-p2) then 8 electrons go into the M-shell (s2, x-p2, y-p2, z-p2) and the remaining electron is in the N-shell as s1.
The K-shell has 2 electrons (s2) , the L-shell has 8 electrons (s2, x-p2, y-p2, z-p2) and the remaining 9 electrons go into the M-shell as s2, x-p2, y-p2, z-p2 and d1.


You can now submit your exam to Merlin for grading. If your answers were less than perfect you will receive a score and a list of Incorrect (and Correct) replies. Then you can use your "Back Button" to return to this page and correct your earlier errors. Once you have corrected all your earlier errors (by rechoosing a correct answer when you were told you are wrong), you will get a perfect score.


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This work was created by Dr Jamie Love and Creative Commons Licence licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
In this sample, only the first Ancient Element (AIR) is available. The other Elements, WATER, EARTH and FIRE, are included in the complete hypertextbook, and each of those Elements are about twice as long as AIR. To learn more about the course and hypertextbook, visit the Principles of Alchemy (Chemistry) website.