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The Chemical Educator
ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 8
Issue 1 (2003) pp 22-27
Extreme Values in Chemistry: Buffer Capacity
Manuel A. P. Segurado
Centro de Electroquímica e Cinética da Universidade de
Lisboa,Faculdade de Farmácia, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 1649-003
Lisboa, Portugal, asegurado@ff.ul.pt
Received July 12, 2002. Accepted October 5, 2002
Published online: 14 November 2002
Abstract. Initially chemical
phenomena and the quantitative laws associated with them are discussed,
focusing on the important role of mathematical modeling. The lack of
an interdisciplinary interface between mathematics and chemistry is
acknowledged and the importance of functions is emphasized—it is essential
to have a rigorous understanding of the analytical properties characteristic
of each class of function before trying to use them for modeling in
chemistry or in any other field. A good example for this is provided
by the determination of extremes; however, the investigation of maxima
and minima in most chemistry textbooks is not done rigorously—it is
based exclusively on the condition f'(x) = 0. Chemical
applications of the extreme values of functions are discussed and buffer
capacity is used as an example of these applications.
Key Words: In the Classroom; instrumental analysis; electrochemistry
(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: asegurado@ff.ul.pt)
Article in PDF format (311 KB) HTML format
Issue date: February
1, 2003
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