How Matter Works: The Foundations of Chemistry
Discover the hidden logic of the physical world, from the dance of subatomic particles to the explosive energy of chemical reactions.
Like Duolingo, but for How Matter Works: The Foundations of Chemistry. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A deep dive: 45 levels across 6 sections, about 90 minutes end to end, roughly 18 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Seeing Like a Chemist, The Building Blocks, The Social Life of Atoms, The Language of Reactions, States and Solutions, and The Energy of Change. It starts from scratch.
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Key ideas in How Matter Works: The Foundations of Chemistry
- Physical changes like dissolving or melting don't create new substances
- Unexpected bubbling indicates a gas is being produced by a reaction
- Chemical changes result in a substance with different properties, like sugar turning into carbon
- A sudden, permanent color change suggests a new molecule has formed
- Reversibility is often a clue for physical changes
- Mixing two liquids to see them turn cloudy or change color is a sign of rearrangement
- Distinguishing between physical and chemical changes based on substance identity
- Identifying visual signals of a chemical reaction
- Chemical reactions can release stored energy as heat (exothermic)
- Atoms are rearranged but never lost during a reaction
- Temperature changes without a stove or ice bath indicate bonds are breaking or forming
- The total mass of the products must equal the total mass of the reactants
- Energy absorption can make a mixture feel cold
- Gases produced in a reaction still have mass even if they are invisible
- A precipitate is a solid that emerges from a liquid chemical reaction
- Cloudiness in a previously clear mixture is the visual cue for solid formation
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Matter Works: The Foundations of Chemistry the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
You drop a tablet into room-temperature water and it begins to bubble. What does this unexpected bubbling suggest?
Get it right to open this lesson and 44 more in the app.
Where How Matter Works: The Foundations of Chemistry takes you
- 1
Seeing Like a Chemist
- Spotting Chemical Change
- Sorting the World's Ingredients
- 2
The Building Blocks
- The Anatomy of an Atom
- Decoding the Periodic Table
- 3
The Social Life of Atoms
- The Tug-of-War: Ionic Bonding
- Sharing the Load: Covalent Bonding
- The Architecture of Molecules
- 4
The Language of Reactions
- Counting by Weighing: The Mole
- Balancing the Chemical Equation
- Reaction Math: Stoichiometry
- 5
States and Solutions
- The Kinetic Nature of Matter
- The Science of Dissolving
- Acids, Bases, and pH
- 6
The Energy of Change
- Thermochemistry: Heat and Bonds
- Kinetics and Equilibrium
6 sections · 15 units · 45 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
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How Matter Works: The Foundations of Chemistry is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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