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This text was designed to be used for Chemistry 343, a Physical Chemistry I course:
This course covers the broad fields of thermodynamics and kinetics and also introduces spectroscopy. Thermodynamics deals with the interconversion of various kinds of energy and how changes in physical properties are involved with these processes. Thermodynamics is concerned with equilibrium states of matter and is time-independent. On the other hand, kinetic theory strives to understand how the rates of processes result from (a simple model of) the properties of atoms and molecules. Spectroscopy is the use of electromagnetic radiation (light) to probe matter.