A cornerstone activity in undergraduate organic laboratories revolves around students running instrumental analysis on their products and interpreting their spectra. They are left to link the theory they have learned in lecture to practical spectral interpretation. Students often memorize benchmark interpretations of peaks, such as the broad…

The binding constant and stoichiometry ratio for the formation of iron(II)-(1,10-phenanthroline) or iron(II)-o-phenanthroline complexes has been determined by a combination of a low-cost analytical method using a smartphone and a molecular modeling method as a laboratory experiment designed for analytical and physical chemistry courses. Intensity…

A visual regression analysis using the least absolutes method (LAB) was developed, utilizing an interactive approach of visually minimizing the sum of the absolute deviations (SAB) using a bar graph in Excel; the results agree very well with those obtained from nonvisual LAB using a numerical Solver in Excel. These LAB results were compared with…

A coin-flipping analogy and free corresponding web app have been developed to facilitate student understanding of the origins of spin-spin splitting. First-order splitting patterns can easily be derived and understood. "Complex" splitting patterns (e.g., doublet of quartets), are easily incorporated into the analogy. A study of the…

Contains seven articles about computer applications to chemistry instruction. Includes descriptions of a three-dimensional animation of a potential energy surface, numerical solutions of kinetic equations, applications for spectroscopy courses, a computer-controlled experiment on the tin/lead solid/liquid phase diagram, an inexpensive thermistor…