Why do/doing chemistry?

[Champ101]

Hi everyone,

I decided to start this forum to find out why you chose to do chemistry why you think it is a good subject to do what you find enjoyable about it?
Are there any negatives or positives?

Thanks!

[Kel9901]

I just did year 12 chemistry this year (year 11 last year).
It's kinda hard to put into words, I just did chem initially without that much reason (aside from that I'm good at it). Looking back, it was a good decision- I really liked the fairly broad course.
The variety of questions in chem are really fun- e.g. different electrochemical cells to analyse all the time, different equilibrium/acidbase reactions, different stoich etc.
Not really any negatives although I basically fell asleep/lost interest every class between biomolecules and just after reaction rates/equilibrium so I had a bit of catching up to do.

Learning physics in the same year really helps when it comes to explaining spectroscopy concepts e.g. electron excitation (light+matter section in physics). I didn't learn biology but I suppose the biomolecules/DNA/aspirin stuff would benefit

[ephixae]

I've just completed year 11 chemistry and I loved it. I chose it only because there was really not much else of interest on offer.

There were relatively few equations to remember and they were generally simple and easily understood, coming from methods, they were a hell of a lot easier in comparison. The questions were simply a matter of extrapolating values and understanding what the particular question was asking in terms of varying wording. The only problem is that if you got one value wrong, then the rest would be incorrect also; although our teacher did give us some marks if we had completed the question with the correct methods but wrong values.

I also enjoyed the more theory-based, (as opposed to calculation-based, I suppose) work as it gave an insight into different materials and their properties which made them suitable for applications in the real world, and an explanation as to why some things are as they are - for example, a reasoning as to why some plastics are flexible and others are rigid, with respect to the molecular structure.

In all, I don't think I really would've enjoyed chemistry without a great teacher; so for me, quite a lot of it was dependent on that alone. But if you're one to grasp concepts easy and understanding of maths comes naturally to you, then I would expect you would enjoy it and get through the course with ease regardless of this.

[mahler004]

Speaking from experience, chemistry is by far the most useful science to do if you're planning to do science (chemistry/biology) at uni. Even more important then doing biology at year 12 level.