[Charkol]

Hello,

What are the main ideas in Physical Chemistry? 

I am half way through the Organic series, and it seems like a whole different type of chemistry than the first year General Chemistry.  From what I have gleaned from this forum it seems that Pchem uses much more of the General Chemistry knowledge base than OChem used.

I assume the math is harder as it can use diff eq and linear algebra.  But is the knowledge base it's own entity, or does it directly build upon and use specific ideas in General chemistry and Ochem?

Thanks in advance
Charkol

[Borek]

PChem builds more on general chemistry. If anything, it is orgo that uses PChem concepts to explain what is going on.

[rabolisk]

Most people would say PChem is more difficult than OChem, and most people would also say that OChem is more difficult than Gen Chem. However, as you mentioned, OChem is just different from Gen Chem, and you'll see that PChem is very different from OChem. PChem is very mathematical and in some ways more like a physics class than a chemistry class.

[Jorriss]

P Chem uses more math and the ideas are more complicated.