The Chemistry Mystery: Why Some Love and Others Loathe This Subject

[Swetasuria]

I can't bring myself to like this subject. And I can't do my desired course without being good at it. Its like one information after the other and some things make no sense and too many exceptions.

If there's someone out there who likes chemistry, then please tell me what about this subject draws you into it.

 

[Astronuc]

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/curl-bio.html

I was not a particularly distinguished student as a child. My grades were good but obtained more by steady work than any brilliance on my part. I vividly remember my father telling me that one of my elementary school teachers had told him that I was not brilliant but I was a steady hard worker. Somehow the further I progressed in school, the easier it became to do well.

It was a great delight when I finally got to study chemistry in high school. My teacher, Mrs. Lorena Davis, saw that I was keenly interested and did her best to foster and nourish that interest. As only one year of chemistry was offered then, I had no formal course in the subject to take my final year in high school. Mrs. Davis offered me special projects to satisfy my appetite for chemistry. I remember most constructing a Cottrell Precipitator. I was shocked to see Mrs. Davis, who didn't smoke, light up a cigarette and blow smoke into the precipitator to demonstrate that it worked.

. . . .

Lot's of stories available at the Nobel Prize site.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/index.html

 

[dipole]

If you stick with it, you'll eventually learn than all those rules and exceptions and what-not are actually coming from somewhere. If you ever learn about quantum mechanics, and molecular quantum mechanics, it'll provide a lot of insight into the stuff you've been told to just memorize.

But, for now, just accept that it's pretty complicated and even the simplest of atoms are not at all simple systems from a physical point of view. :)

 

[Borek]

Well... I am in a relationship with chemistry. And its complicated.

OK, more seriously. Problem with chemistry is that the world itself is complicated. In physics we often talk about point masses sliding without friction, or about perfect collisions and so on. No such things in the real world, which is why engineers physics is (in a way) different from physicist physics. And chemists are even lower on the ladder, so they have to deal with much more numerous imperfections of the real world. That means chemistry is very difficult at the beginning, as every rule covers only a small subset of reactions/processes/phenomena. The more you know, the more obvious it is why things happen the way they happen, and chemistry becomes more palatable.

But don't worry, it never gets predictable and boring. It will be always able to surprise you.

 

[Crake]

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/curl-bio.html
Lot's of stories available at the Nobel Prize site.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/index.html

That is interesting. I couldn't find any stories for the laureates of physics tho. I'm an idiot who can't search a website.

 

[Borek]

That is interesting. I couldn't find any stories for the laureates of physics tho. I'm an idiot who can't search a website.

Add "site:nobelprize.org" to your google search query, that will limit your searches to the site.

 

[Crake]

Add "site:nobelprize.org" to your google search query, that will limit your searches to the site.

Yes, I know that. Also "filetype:pdf" is a good way to search for pdf's

 

[Enigman]

Chemistry gets really tough before getting moderately easy- too many general trends with too many exceptions; laws which work only in specific conditions; theories which cover the same thing to different extents and limitations...all in all in the beginning its a huge mess...but as you progress further everything sort of falls into space as you grasp the hierarchy of the rules, trends and laws. It gets really easy after that...dare I say easier than physics...also a bit more beautiful (more than it previously was, NOT more than physics...)
Using things like flash cards and mind maps generally helps.

 

[jackmell]

If there's someone out there who likes chemistry, then please tell me what about this subject draws you into it.

At an early age I grew to like biology and medicine, the origin of life, and evolution. But all these things are chemistry and I realized if I wanted to really understand them, I would have to understand chemistry. So I did. I went to college to study chemistry for the single reason of learning how biology works. Job, career, money were all secondary to me.

I find it very satisfying to view the living world from the perspective of chemistry. If you want to understand biology, study chemistry. If you want to understand your health, study chemistry. And if you want to understand life and its evolution, then study chemistry.