New York State Regents Examination Physical Science: Chemistry

1.On a cold evening in Albany, a family burns a stick of dry wood in a fireplace. Nearby, someone folds a sheet of paper into a card. Which comparison is accurate?

2.A hiker near the Hudson Highlands packs raisins, peanuts, and pretzel pieces in one bag. What kind of matter is in that bag?

3.A diner in Utica keeps a shaker of table salt, sodium chloride. How is that salt classified?

4.A roof in Troy is patched with a strip of copper. Copper has atomic number 29. What is that strip?

5.Ice from a Lake Placid cooler melts into liquid water in a glass. What kind of change is the melting?

6.A baker in Brooklyn stirs sugar into hot tea until the crystals disappear. Which statement describes the sugar?

7.Steel beams on a bridge over the Mohawk River develop reddish brown rust after years in wet air. What happened to the iron?

8.On a January morning in Watertown, droplets appear on the inside of a cold window even though the room air looked clear. What produced the droplets?

9.A sealed jar on a scale in a Buffalo classroom holds materials that react and form a gas. The lid stays closed, and nothing enters or leaves. What is true of the mass of the jar and everything inside it?

10.A metal block at a Rochester shop has a mass of 80 grams and a volume of 20 cubic centimeters. What is its density?

11.A field note from a Catskill stream lists the water level in a cylinder at 40 milliliters, then at 55 milliliters with a pebble already inside. What is the volume of the pebble?

12.An open container in a Schenectady classroom, including the liquid inside, has a mass of 150 grams. A gas forms and leaves. The container and what remains then have a mass of 142 grams. Why did the reading fall?

13.Hikers near Lake Placid measure a chunk of Adirondack granite as 12.0 grams and 4.0 cubic centimeters. Which density matches those measurements?

14.The air over New York Harbor is 25 degrees Celsius. What is that temperature on the Kelvin scale?

15.A weather balloon released near Lake Champlain reports a gas temperature of 300 kelvins. What is that temperature in degrees Celsius?

16.A cup of lake water and the whole of Lake George can both be at 15 degrees Celsius. Which comparison is accurate?

17.Sodium has atomic number 11. What does that atomic number count in a sodium atom?

18.Carbon-12 and carbon-14 are both carbon atoms found in materials around New York. How do their nuclei compare?

19.A neutral magnesium atom used as an example in a White Plains class has atomic number 12. How many electrons does it have?

20.Chlorine-35 has atomic number 17. How many neutrons are in one atom of chlorine-35?

21.A sodium atom loses one electron and becomes Na+. Sodium has atomic number 11. What does that ion contain?

22.Oxygen-16 and oxygen-18 both show up in water from the Finger Lakes. What makes them isotopes of the same element?

23.A model of an atom hangs in a classroom in New Paltz. Where are the protons and neutrons located?

24.Compared with the whole atom, the nucleus is extremely small. Where is nearly all of the atom's mass?

25.On a periodic table in Poughkeepsie, lithium, carbon, and neon sit in the same horizontal row. What is that row called?

26.Fluorine, chlorine, and bromine line up in one vertical column of the periodic table. Why are they placed together?

27.Lithium and potassium are alkali metals in Group 1, used as examples in a Kingston class. What ion does an alkali metal atom typically form?

28.Chlorine is a halogen in Group 17. What does a chlorine atom tend to do when it forms an ion?

29.Neon signs light storefronts near Times Square. Neon is a noble gas. Why is neon generally unreactive?

30.A student in Yonkers scans the periodic table from left to right and sets hydrogen aside. Where are most metals found?

31.Calcium is in Group 2. How many valence electrons does a calcium atom have?

32.Lithium, sodium, and potassium are stacked in Group 1. How does atomic radius change from lithium down to potassium?

33.Sodium and chlorine form sodium chloride in a model discussed in a Saugerties class. What happens to the electrons in that ionic bond?

34.Two oxygen atoms in a molecule of oxygen gas over the Palisades share electrons. What kind of bond holds them together?

35.Copper wire carries electricity through an apartment in Queens. What feature of copper lets it conduct as a metal?

36.The salt in a Syracuse kitchen is sodium chloride, NaCl. Which description fits that compound?

37.A water molecule has two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom, and the shape is bent. Why is the molecule polar?

38.Water boils at a much higher temperature than hydrogen sulfide, H2S, even though both molecules are small. What mainly explains water's higher boiling point?

39.In many molecules drawn for a class in New Rochelle, atoms other than hydrogen are shown with eight electrons in the outer shell. What is that common pattern called?

40.Calcium ions have charge 2+, and chloride ions have charge 1−. What formula shows a neutral compound of these ions?

41.A sheet used in an Ithaca class lists hydrogen as 1 and oxygen as 16 on the atomic-mass scale. What is the molar mass of water, H2O?

42.Carbon dioxide, CO2, is in the air over the Erie Canal. Using carbon as 12 and oxygen as 16, what is its molar mass?

43.A jug at a farm stand in the Hudson Valley contains 36 grams of water. Hydrogen is 1 and oxygen is 16. How many moles of water is that?

44.A teacher in Corning points to one mole of carbon atoms on the board. About how many atoms is one mole?

45.Using hydrogen as 1 and oxygen as 16, how many grams of the 18 grams in one mole of water come from hydrogen?

46.A small hydrocarbon molecule discussed in a Long Island class has the molecular formula C2H6. What is its empirical formula?

47.A class in Binghamton checks the equation 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O. Why is it balanced?

48.Students in Elmira are balancing an equation and must keep each chemical formula as written. Which change is the one they should make?

49.Wood burns in a fireplace in Saratoga Springs and forms ash and gases. What happens to the atoms during that chemical change?

50.A board in Oneonta shows the general pattern A + B → AB. What type of reaction is that pattern?

51.The pattern AB → A + B is written on a notebook in Jamestown. Which name fits that pattern?

52.The pattern A + BC → AC + B is posted in a classroom in Olean. What type of reaction is it?

53.The pattern AB + CD → AD + CB shows two compounds reacting. What is exchanged?

54.A candle of hydrocarbon wax burns completely in open air on a table in the Bronx. Which substances are the expected products?

55.A container in Lockport holds two liquids that were both clear. A solid has formed and settled. What is that solid called when it comes from the reaction?

56.A substance present during a reaction studied in an Oswego class makes the reaction faster and is still there afterward. What role did it play?

57.During a chemical reaction, bonds in the reactants are broken and bonds in the products are formed. Which statement about energy is correct?

58.A hand-warmer packet used by a skater on the Erie Canal trail gives off heat as the materials inside react. How is that reaction classified?

59.A sealed pack at a clinic in Plattsburgh absorbs energy as the change inside continues, and the outside of the pack feels cold. Which description fits?

60.Logs in a Harlem fireplace sit unburned until a flame is held to them. What is the minimum energy needed to get that reaction started?

61.Ice at 0 degrees Celsius melts on a dock at Coney Island. The ice and the meltwater stay at 0 degrees Celsius while the melting goes on. What is the added energy used for?

62.Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius in an open pot in Riverhead and stays at 100 degrees Celsius while it boils. What is the added energy used for during the boiling?

63.The same amount of energy is added to 100 grams of water and to 100 grams of the metal in a bench at the Battery. The metal's temperature rises more. What does that show?

64.On an energy diagram drawn in a Staten Island class, the products sit lower than the reactants. What does that diagram show about the reaction?

65.A cafeteria in Syracuse tests two clear liquids. One has a pH of 3, and the other has a pH of 10. Which description is correct?

66.Pure water at room temperature in a glass in Cooperstown has a pH of 7. How is that water described?

67.Lemon juice at a stand on Fire Island has a low pH. In water, what do acids increase?

68.A tile cleaner in a shop in Lackawanna has a pH of 11. In water, what does a base of this kind increase?

69.An Albany class looks at the equation HCl + NaOH → NaCl + H2O. What product pair does this acid-base reaction form?

70.A dye used in a Newburgh classroom is red in an acidic solution and yellow in a basic solution. What is that dye called?

71.Two pitchers at a stand in Central Park each hold 1 liter of lemonade. Pitcher A has 20 grams of dissolved sugar, and pitcher B has 40 grams. Which statement is true?

72.A jar of iced tea in a Montauk kitchen has sugar settled on the bottom. At that temperature, the tea holds as much dissolved sugar as it can. What is that tea?

73.A sealed flexible bag of air on a boat in New York Harbor stays at the same temperature while the pressure on the bag increases. What happens to the volume of the air?

74.A balloon filled on a cold morning in Tug Hill is carried indoors, and the pressure stays about the same. The air in the balloon warms. What happens to its volume?

75.A chart in a Lake Placid classroom shows the bottom of the Kelvin scale. What is 0 kelvin?

76.Air presses on the walls of a sealed subway car as it crosses the Manhattan Bridge. What causes that gas pressure?

77.A reference table in a class in New Paltz lists standard temperature and pressure for comparing gases. Which pair is STP?

78.An ideal-gas model is used for a sample of air in a lesson in Ithaca. Which pair of assumptions belongs to that model?

79.At the same temperature, hydrogen gas and oxygen gas are compared in a lesson about the air near Niagara Falls. Which statement is accurate?

80.A sealed steel tank on a barge in the Hudson River holds a fixed volume of gas. The gas is heated. What happens to the pressure?

81.Salt on an icy sidewalk in Syracuse dissolves in the meltwater, but that same salt does not dissolve in a puddle of cooking oil. Why does the salt dissolve in the water?

82.Salt water is part of a conductivity check in an Auburn classroom, and the bulb in the circuit glows. Why can that solution conduct?

83.Sugar dissolved in water is checked in that same Auburn classroom, and the bulb does not glow. Why is the sugar solution a poor conductor?

84.A cook in a Brooklyn kitchen boils pure water in one pot and water with a large amount of dissolved salt in another. The air pressure is the same for both. Which pot boils at the higher temperature?

85.Road crews spread salt on a highway near Syracuse before a winter storm. How does dissolved salt affect water on the road?

86.A water strider stands on the surface of a still pond in the Catskills. The surface acts like a thin skin. What mainly gives water that high surface tension?

87.Ice floats on the Hudson River during a cold week. What does that show about density?

88.A student in Geneva, beside Seneca Lake, compares how much of a solid salt dissolves in hot water and in cold water. For most solid solutes, what is the trend?

89.Two matching reactions are compared in a lesson in Albany. The warmer one finishes sooner. Why does a higher temperature usually speed a reaction?

90.Rock salt for an icy sidewalk in Rochester is compared as one large chunk and as many small grains, with the same total mass. The grains disappear into the meltwater faster. Why?

91.A reaction in solution goes faster when the reactant concentration is higher. In a Utica classroom, container 1 has a higher reactant concentration than container 2. Temperature and catalyst are the same. What is expected?

92.A reversible reaction in a closed flask in a Poughkeepsie classroom has reached equilibrium. Which statement is correct?

93.A reversible reaction releases energy as it goes forward. It is at equilibrium in a closed container in Troy when the temperature is raised. Which way does the equilibrium shift?

94.In a reaction discussed in a Westchester class, a zinc atom becomes Zn2+ by losing two electrons. What happened to the zinc?

95.During a reaction shown in a Westchester class, a copper ion, Cu2+, becomes a neutral copper atom by gaining two electrons. What happened to the copper ion?

96.A teacher in New Rochelle says that one particle loses electrons during a reaction. What else must happen?

97.A nucleus in a model used in a Stony Brook classroom emits an alpha particle. What is an alpha particle?

98.A nucleus in a model used in a Glens Falls class emits a beta particle in ordinary beta decay. What is that particle?

99.A nucleus in a lesson in Riverhead releases gamma radiation along with another nuclear change. What is gamma radiation?

100.A sample in a Cortland lesson starts with 80 grams of a radioactive isotope. Two half-lives pass. How much of that isotope remains?

101.Rust forming on a fence in Mount Vernon is compared with a nucleus of one element becoming the nucleus of another element. Which statement is accurate?

102.A once-living wooden beam from an old barn near Cooperstown still contains carbon-14. Why can the remaining carbon-14 help estimate how long ago the tree died?

103.Methane, CH4, is discussed as a fuel in a lesson in Staten Island. Why is methane called a hydrocarbon?

104.Propane, C3H8, fuels a camp stove in the Adirondacks. Its carbon atoms are joined only by single bonds. What type of hydrocarbon is propane?

105.A plastic crate on a dock in Red Hook is made of very large molecules. Each molecule is a long chain of the same small repeating unit. What is that large molecule called?

106.A molecule shown in a Manhattan classroom has a chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms and one -OH group bonded to a carbon. What class of compound is it?

107.A box in a grocery store in the Bronx is labeled with the formula NaCl. What is the chemical name of that compound?

108.A neutral fluorine atom has atomic number 9. Which electron arrangement fits that atom?