Reasons to Study Chemistry

Chemistry influences our lives in many ways, from the food we eat to the clothes we wear. Our environment is one big chemistry laboratory, with diverse biochemical processes everywhere. Consider water and carbon. Why is water essential to our lives? Why is water essential to all, if not most, life on the planet? One reason is that our bodies are more than two-thirds water. Carbon, which has been such an environmental concern of late in one form, is also essential to life in other forms. Much of our bodies, as well as the bodies of all the animals on the planet, are made from carbon. We cannot live without it.

The earth is a finely balanced chemical environment where many processes are happening all the time. One example of this balance is that clouds form, rain drops, the sun comes out and the rain evaporates. Then the whole cycle starts again. This is all chemistry.

A view of the Earth from space

The physical properties of materials, or matter, are examined and used through chemistry. Is the object hard or soft? Does it fall apart easily? Does it smell unusual or have a strange color? All of these are physical properties that are understood by studying chemistry.

All sorts of foods have their physical properties altered, often through chemistry. Why are oranges “so” orange? Why are apples so red or green or hard or sweet? It is chemistry in combination with natural modifications that create these appetizing colors. Is “red” meat really red? Do you really want to know how all those chips and cereal flakes are made? Some taste so good, but what is on or in the chips that we like so much?

Why is one type of flower so fragrant and tall with stiff stems while another has putrid smelling flowers, with short stems and thick leaves? Chemistry explains this.

Why does water freeze at exactly 32 degrees? Why does it not freeze when salt or sand is added at that temperature? Can oxygen be a liquid? Can it be a solid? And can iron be a gas? The answer is yes, and chemistry explains how to do this with any matter.

The chemical properties of matter are also interesting. Saltwater is really a combination of regular water and regular salt. If we make a glass full of saltwater and then heat the mixture we eventually end up with just a layer of salt – it does not go anywhere, but the water does. If we wash the white T-shirts with the red sweaters, we often end up with pink T-shirts and red sweaters, not pink sweaters and white T-shirts.

Did you know that the metal sodium burns when it is in oxygen? It’s a metal that burns spontaneously. That same metal is used in the orange-yellow sodium lights on the streets that are now used to reduce excess white light at night. But, it is safe in those lights, and it won’t burn up. Its chemical properties have been changed. Also, the glow we get from “neon” lights uses the chemical properties of the element neon to make life easier.

More in-depth chemistry focuses on an understanding of these types of properties in terms of atoms and molecules. Atoms and molecules are the tiny building blocks of matter. There are over 100 elements and each is composed of a unique kind of atom. An element is a pure chemical substance made up of one type of atom. Various atoms combine to form molecules all with unique shapes. While a single atom of hydrogen and oxygen are elements and two atoms of hydrogen or two atoms of oxygen form molecules such as the oxygen in the air we breathe. When two atoms of hydrogen are combined with one atom of oxygen, they form a molecule of water. Water is liquid and both hydrogen and oxygen are gases. What other odd things can we find in chemistry?

In a broader sense, chemistry involves studying the properties and behavior of the physical material of the universe, of matter. Matter is anything that has mass and occupies space. With chemistry, you will learn how all these vastly different materials interact to keep our planet alive and everything on it surviving.

A view of the moon from space

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