Out of curiosity, is this a case where you are arguing into the honors class instead of the standard class or that you are arguing into chemistry instead of some other science subject.

It was mentioned before, and while I wouldn't agree that chemistry has a lot of math (at least not in anything covered in high school or the first couple years of general college chemistry) but what math there is does require a solid understanding of algebra and solving some more complex equations

So before jumping into the hard chemistry class as a freshman it is probably good to make sure he can handle the math (and if he can, that is something to emphasize in the letter).

We are arguing into honors rather than the standard science curriculum (which includes some chemistry). He is interested because he really liked the chemistry unit earlier this year and because they stressed you have to have good math skills. Math has always been a subject that just clicks for him. Plus only the few get selected so it has a certain cache with his peers.

I went to summer school between 9th and 10th grade for trig/math analysis due to peer pressure.

If he can solve this for x:

(2x/16)+2.5y = 14y^2 + 1/2z - .8x

If he can calculate the slope of a line that starts at coordinate (3,12) and ends at (16, 3).

If he can calculate the area under that line.

If he can understand why dividing a measured 3.0 grams into four even samples results in four samples weighing 0.8 grams each and not 0.75 grams.

If he understands the math for calculating standard deviation (and, better yet, understands why it is important and what it means).

If he can drum the number 6.02x10^23 into his head and understand what it means.

Then he probably has enough grasp of the math of early chemistry to keep up.

Sounds like fun. I'll run them by him. I'm really not too worried about the math part. He's good at it (for his age) and about half my family (myself not included) are math PhD's so I have a fairly good support group if that's needed.

We never had to calculate standard deviation in chem...

But yeah...if he is going into, for instance, Algebra C next year, Chemistry is not for him. If he has at least completed Geometry he should be fine, though. The math itself isn't hard...the process by which you set up each equation and are able to translate what you see on paper into math can be, though.

I thought you didn't even like avocados.

I had to do it all the time in my high school chemistry classes. Maybe it is one of those things usurped by modern calculators since back in my day we had to do it the sequence by hand (we did have calculators for doing the basic arithmatic.

But it isn't so much whether that specific task is done as the concept is important (and being able to do and understand that math indicates certain fundamental competencies). Even if the students don't actually calculate standard deviation, I have to think that the concept (imprecision of measurement and variability of results) will be discussed quite a bit.

That could be why. Calculate molality too many times and maybe it creates an intolerance.

The actual computation of standard deviation I found easy...it was the whole concept of significant figures that took me a while to be comfortable with for some reason. It makes sense now, but it drove me batty learning it (and I'm glad I mentioned that because now I get the 3 grams -> 4x0.8 grams).

My high school did things a bit backwards. Physics first, then Chem, then Bio. If you were in calculus by the time you were taking physics, then you were allowed to take AP Physics. Not sure what their reasoning was for putting physics first. Chem before bio made perfect sense as AP bio is largely applied chem.