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Your guide: Miss SanaCounts atoms the way you count rupees: carefully.
A lunar mission brings rock samples back from the Moon. One lab finds out what the rock is made of. Another measures its physical properties. A third reacts it with ordinary inorganic reagents. Same rock, three different kinds of chemist.
Your book defines chemistry as the science of the properties, composition and structure of substances. It also covers the physical and chemical changes in matter, and the laws that govern those changes.
Composition means the percentages of elements and compounds in a sample. Structure means how the atoms are arranged. Both kinds of change may take in energy or give it out.
Chemistry is too wide to study all at once. So it is divided into branches. Each branch gives scientists one area to focus on, which is how breakthroughs happen.
Physical chemistry: how substances behave at the atomic and molecular level; used to predict and change reaction rates for industry.
Inorganic chemistry: elements and compounds with little or no carbon, such as metals, salts, acids and bases.
Organic chemistry: carbon compounds (hydrocarbons and their derivatives), but not simple salts like carbonates.
Environmental chemistry: chemicals in air, soil and water, and the causes, effects and solutions of pollution.
Analytical chemistry: separating, identifying and finding the concentration of the parts of a material, often with modern instruments.
Biochemistry: chemical substances and vital processes in living things, such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids.
Nuclear chemistry: reactions in the nucleus of an atom, including radioactivity; used in agriculture, medicine and industry.
Polymer chemistry: large molecules built by linking small building blocks; proteins, cellulose and nucleic acids are natural polymers.
Geochemistry: the chemical composition of the Earth, its sources and minerals; used in mineral exploration.
Medicinal chemistry: designing and making medicines, and how the body absorbs and uses them.
Astrochemistry: atoms, molecules and ions in space and how they interact with radiation.
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A lunar mission brings rock samples back from the Moon. One lab finds out what the rock is made of. Another measures its physical properties. A third reacts it with ordinary inorganic reagents. Same rock, three different kinds of chemist.
Your book defines chemistry as the science of the properties, composition and structure of substances. It also covers the physical and chemical changes in matter, and the laws that govern those changes.
Composition means the percentages of elements and compounds in a sample. Structure means how the atoms are arranged. Both kinds of change may take in energy or give it out.
Chemistry is too wide to study all at once. So it is divided into branches. Each branch gives scientists one area to focus on, which is how breakthroughs happen.
Physical chemistry: how substances behave at the atomic and molecular level; used to predict and change reaction rates for industry.
Inorganic chemistry: elements and compounds with little or no carbon, such as metals, salts, acids and bases.
Organic chemistry: carbon compounds (hydrocarbons and their derivatives), but not simple salts like carbonates.
Environmental chemistry: chemicals in air, soil and water, and the causes, effects and solutions of pollution.
Analytical chemistry: separating, identifying and finding the concentration of the parts of a material, often with modern instruments.
Biochemistry: chemical substances and vital processes in living things, such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids.
Nuclear chemistry: reactions in the nucleus of an atom, including radioactivity; used in agriculture, medicine and industry.
Polymer chemistry: large molecules built by linking small building blocks; proteins, cellulose and nucleic acids are natural polymers.
Geochemistry: the chemical composition of the Earth, its sources and minerals; used in mineral exploration.
Medicinal chemistry: designing and making medicines, and how the body absorbs and uses them.
Astrochemistry: atoms, molecules and ions in space and how they interact with radiation.
Chemistry studies the properties, composition and structure of substances, the physical and chemical changes in matter, and the laws behind those changes. It is split into branches so that each can focus on one area.
Q1. Is calcium carbonate (CaCO3) studied in organic or inorganic chemistry? It contains carbon.
Inorganic chemistry: a carbonate is a salt, so it belongs with the inorganic substances.
Q2. A scientist designs a new painkiller and tracks how the body absorbs it. Which branch is this?
Medicinal chemistry.
Q3. Why is chemistry divided into many branches? Give three reasons.
To understand a wide, complex subject; to concentrate on specific aspects; and to let scientists focus and make breakthroughs.
✗ Writing that every compound containing carbon is organic.
✓ Carbonates, bicarbonates, oxides and carbides contain carbon but are studied as inorganic salts.
✗ Treating biochemistry and organic chemistry as the same branch.
✓ Organic chemistry studies carbon compounds in general. Biochemistry studies the substances and processes inside living organisms.
✗ Using composition and structure as if they mean the same thing.
✓ Composition is the percentage of each element or compound. Structure is the arrangement of the atoms.
1. The hazardous effects of shopping bags are studied in:
(d) Environmental chemistry studies the effects of chemicals released into air, soil and water, and the causes and solutions of pollution.
2. The man-made polymer is:
(b) Your book names proteins and cellulose as natural polymers, and starch comes from plants. Polystyrene is the man-made one.
3. Which of these is studied in organic chemistry?
(b) Methane is a hydrocarbon. The other three are a carbonate, an oxide and a carbide, which the book leaves out of organic chemistry.
4. The structure of matter means:
(c) The book says structure is the arrangement of atoms. The percentage of each element is composition.
5. Which branch studies molecules and ions in interstellar space?
(a) Astrochemistry studies the atoms, molecules and ions in the universe and how they interact with radiation.
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