PJPSYCO

Being a chemist myself, I have no idea. Is there just something special about my brain that allows me to comprehend the ideas that when things are put together they might make other things.

I will admit that some of the math can be quite intensive, but you leave that to the research chemists, and grab a handbook of physics and chemistry and plug and chug to get an answer.

I have met so many people who after being taught the general chemistry with a lab, have problems understanding what they were doing.

Perhaps, you betcha shows us where the problem comes with his "chemicals can't mix themselves" comment. Perhaps we just need to explain all the falures in chemistry. We can use the story of my friend who was trying to make Benzocane(pain killer/sun tan lotion) and made sodium carbonate(NaCO3,salt). They look the same externally(both white powders). It was determined that he made the NaCO3 when a melting point assay(test) was done, and it was something super high (>700C), for reference benzocaine's is closer to 100C.

Thoughts?

Is it just that somebody didn't mark the white powders and clear liquids?(chemistry joke)

Peris

gregw

Perhaps it's because chem does not always seem to have an immediate practical value. It's often a requirement for all science and engineering majors and can be seen as an ostacle to be overcome before reaching the "really good" classes. I remember several chemistry majors being well aware that they would have to go at least as high as a PhD in order to do chemisty research, whereas engineering majors only needed to go as far as their BS. They used to say that one could get a job with just a BS in chem, but they would be working for PhDs their whole lives. I personally usually liked chem, but not some of the professors...and I wasn't all that interested in going for a PhD! (Of course I found that sometimes a degree means exactly zip, while experience is all that matters...but that's a topic for another thread! :-)

So, it seems hard because it is an obstacle, and one must advance very far in the subject in order to make a living. Does that seem a reasonable answer to your question?

And yeah, mark those "white powders and clear liquids." That holds very true in biology, where either could hold some seriously dangerous organisms!

Tinman

Everything is Chemistry

but

Chemistry isn't Everything.

Tinman

Kosh

To me it seemed the problem was too many rules
and exceptions to those rules. I could never
make any kind of a pattern out of it. As a
comp sci major, I found software easy. You learn
some basics and they're all used as building blocks for the rest of it. ONce you understand the
basics....

But I could never see the "basics" in chem.

And yes, I think part of it is the symbology used
to represent it (the one that we invented).

I think math has the same problem. Simple concepts, difficult way that we represent them.
I read last year about a guy who'd come up with
a new (very simple) way of representing mathematics. Book due out this month. Can't
wait...

Kosh ("the 3rd chem 101 class is a charm")

Dolphin

I think I agree with Kosh (excecpt about maths, maths is easy ). I could never see the under lying patern in chemsity (mainly because we weren't taught it as it it is physics) and it was just a straight 'learn it' subject, and I could never be bothered with it. Still got a B a A level

Bill

And Oz never gave anything to the Tinman
that he didn't already have......

More seriously, the question of whether or not there is anything outside of the physical world (consisting of matter and energy, both of which are will within the domain of Chemistry) is a really deep one in philosophy. There isn't any really good argument one way or the other.

Of course, Chemistry is something that the average person deals with on a daily basis, whether they realize it or not. Recognizing that it is a bad idea to mix Chlorene Bleach with certain other household clensers is a matter of life or death. It is also Chemistry. Cooking is also Chemistry. And most of the products we find in the home (including all plastics) are products of Chemistry in one way or another.

I guess Chemistry "gets no respect" because it is sort of "applied Physics." But that statement does sort-of contradict the assertion in the topic: if you have the wherewithall to go on to atomic physics, you had sure better not find Chemistry to be "too hard."

== Bill

cricket

Off-topic, but Kosh -- I'm curious about the math book to which you referred; do you know the title &/or author?

Kosh

Unfortunately I don't. The way they were talking
about it,it was gonna be like "Ginger" for math.
So I figured it would be big news...

Kosh

I think this is it...

<a href="http://www.wolframscience.com/summary/" target="_blank">http://www.wolframscience.com/summary/</a>

Not exactly math perhaps...

MadMordigan

What makes chemistry so hard

Electromagnetic bonding.