 Chemistry is a science of discovery and questions. Why do the different elements and compounds react? Why do they react differently from each other? If I want to make a particular compound, how do I go about making that compound? Am I going to have to heat the reactants to get that compound to form? How much compound am I going to make if I start out with different amounts of reactants? How long am I going to have to wait for that compound to form? Chemistry is very important in all the aspects of our lives. Our whole body is run by very involved chemistry. The environment around us runs by chemistry. Most of the substances that we make are produced by chemical reactions. It's important for us to know how those reactions occur in order to make many of the decisions about our world. What I'd like to do is start out with having us observe a chemical reaction, a reaction between copper metal and nitric acid. In the first flash, we put in 20 milliliters of concentrated nitric acid. In the second flash, we put in 500 milliliters of water to which we've added a little bit of phenothaline. Phenothaline is an acid-base indicator that is colorless in the acid solution and pink in basic solution. In the third flash, we've put about 400 milliliters of 0.1 molar sodium hydroxide, which is a base. I'm going to add copper metal wire to the first flash. In the first flash, we've generated a lot of brown NO2 gas. When the copper is used up, the reaction will stop. The solutions will start to flow in the reverse direction. This is referred to as the red, white and blue reaction from the colors of the flask. There's a lot of chemistry that's happened in the reaction that you've seen. And by the end of the course, you'll be able to explain the reactions that have occurred in each one of the flasks. You'll have an exciting time during this course, and we hope that you enjoy it. It's now time to start that adventure.