I’m going to start with the most basic question I can think of in a chemistry class — What is Chemistry? When I have asked students that in the past, one answer I’ve got is “a required class”! While that is likely true for you, I hope that “required” doesn’t mean “boring” — I’ll do my best – and you can see how this course fits into your daily life and hopefully look at the world a little differently.
Chemistry is the study of matter and its interactions.
Matter is physical stuff – the chair you are sitting on, your computer or phone, your food, water, the air you breathe, even you. We will start by looking at matter at the macroscopic scale (at which we can see with our eyes) and very quickly go to the very small, atomic scale and beyond. Understanding this will help us understand why matter has the characteristics it has. Also, when you combine different type of matter, many things can happen, including
- making something new
- producing energy, heat, or light
- changing color
- producing odor
- explosions
- cooling
- mixing
- nothing at all
Chemistry helps to understand why some of these things happen (or not) and predict what might happen. We will study these aspects throughout the course.
