plete Idiots Guide to Chemistry.pdf

1Why Study Chemistry?In This Chapter◆What chemistry is good for◆Why you might hate chemistry◆Why you shouldn’t hate chemistry◆The origins of chemistry◆How to learn chemistryWhen most people think of the word “chemistry,” they think of a sinister oldman in a white lab coat giggling evilly over a bubbling beaker. This es from movies and television, which usually portray chemistsas the creators of terrible monsters, world-destroying super-weapons, andinsects that grow to abnormal sizes and terrify the residents of small towns inTexas. Fortunately, in recent years, the media has revised their former imageof chemists—we’re now sometimes depicted as senile rather than any case, most people put off taking chemistry until the last possibleminute, the same way most of us put off root canal surgery until flamesstart shooting out of our teeth. Don’t worry if you’re in the same , chemistry has been a source of stress since the times when itwas first realized that mixing chemical A with chemical B formed a greenpowder that fended off witches. Fortunately, recent discoveries indicatethat witches don’t 1018 CH01 7/1/03 3:10 PM Page 3Part 1:Firing Up the Bunsen BurnerWhy Do We Need Chemistry?“Chemistry” is a hard word to define. Some chemistry textbook covers show picturesof bubbling flasks, suggesting that chemistry can be defined as “the study of