Free online course Chemistry Basics

Duration of the online course: 16 hours and 53 minutes

4.74

(34)

Build chemistry confidence fast with this free online course: atoms, periodic table, equations, gases and energy—plus practice to ace exams.

About the free online course

If chemistry has ever felt like a wall of symbols and formulas, this course helps you turn it into a subject you can actually use. You will develop the foundation needed to read chemical language with confidence, interpret what the periodic table is telling you, and understand why matter behaves the way it does. Instead of memorizing disconnected facts, you will learn the ideas that connect measurements, atoms, and reactions into a clear picture.

Right from the start, you focus on the essentials that support everything else in chemistry: terminology, scientific units, and everyday conversions. You will practice moving comfortably between length, mass, volume, temperature, and density, so you can set up problems correctly and avoid the common mistakes that cost points on homework and tests. With this base in place, concepts like moles, molar mass, and Avogadro’s number become tools you can rely on rather than topics you simply get through.

As you progress, the course strengthens your understanding of atoms, molecules, and ions, including how formulas are built and how to reason about composition. You will get more comfortable with naming compounds and recognizing patterns in ionic and molecular substances, along with key ideas around acids and bases. That chemical literacy pays off when you start working with reactions, because you will be able to translate between words, formulas, and equations more naturally.

You then build practical problem-solving skill by balancing chemical equations and connecting them to real quantities. The lessons emphasize the reasoning behind stoichiometry, limiting reagents, yield, and solution concentration, and you will see how titration fits into the broader logic of reaction math. Thermochemistry rounds out the story by showing how energy flows during chemical change and how calorimetry measurements make that energy visible.

Finally, you expand your toolkit with gas behavior and the principles behind ideal gas calculations, alongside a clearer view of electron structure and quantum ideas that explain periodic patterns. By linking electron configuration to periodic trends such as atomic radius, ionization energy, and electron affinity, you gain an understanding that supports future study in general chemistry and beyond.

Course content

Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (1 of 10) Basic Terminology

04m
Exercise: What is the difference between weight and mass?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (2 of 10) Atoms and Molecules

08m
Exercise: What determines the type of atom based on its nucleus?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (3 of 10) The Periodic Table

08m
Exercise: What do hydrogen and helium have in common regarding their placement in the periodic table?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (4 of 10) The Common Elements

04m
Exercise: Which is the most abundant element in the universe?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (5 of 10) Units for Measurements: Length

03m
Exercise: What is the unit of measurement often associated with the size of an atomic nucleus?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (6 of 10) Units for Measurements: Mass

05m
Exercise: What is Avogadro's number?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (7 of 10) Units for Measurements: Volume

02m
Exercise: What is the equivalent of one cubic meter in liters?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (8 of 10) Units for Measurements: Temperature

04m
Exercise: How to Convert Temperature from Kelvin to Centigrade Degrees?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (9 of 10) Units for Measurements: Density

03m
Exercise: What is the density of a substance if its mass is 127.4 grams and its volume is 6.60 cubic centimeters?
Video class: Chemistry - Introduction (10 of 10) Conversion of the Units

06m
Exercise: How do you convert 25 liters to milliliters?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (1 of 23) What is an Atom?

10m
Exercise: What primarily determines the size of an atom?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (2 of 23) What is an Ion?

04m
Exercise: What is an ion?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (3 of 23) What is a Molecule?

07m
Exercise: What is a molecule?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (4 of 23) Avogadro's Number

05m
Exercise: What is Avogadro's constant used for in chemistry?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (5 of 23) Molar Mass

04m
Exercise: How many moles are in a 14.5 gram sample of helium?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (6 of 23) Molecular Formula

06m
Exercise: What percentage of a glucose molecule's mass is carbon?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (7 of 23) Empirical Formula

06m
Exercise: What is the empirical formula of sulfur dioxide based on the given data?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (8 of 23) Determining the Emperical Formula

07m
Exercise: What is the empirical formula for a sample containing C, H, and O?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (9 of 23) Determining the Molecular Mass

05m
Exercise: What is the molecular mass of sulfur dioxide?
Video class: Chemistry - Atoms, Molecules, and Ions (10 of 23) What are Cations and Anions?

08m
Exercise: What is a cation?