Video Transcript
Which of the following statements best describes the study of chemistry? (A) Chemistry is the study of the processes that give rise to and sustain life. (B) Chemistry is the study of matter and what its properties are, what it consists of, and how it changes. (C) Chemistry is the study of matter and energy and their behavior over space and time. (D) Chemistry is the study of logic and numbers, including shapes, quantities, statistics, and arrangement. (E) Chemistry is the study of the mind and how it influences our behavior.
Before we select the correct answer option, let’s clear some space to think about this question. Often when people think about chemistry, they think about beakers and test tubes full of different colored liquids, but it is so much more than that. Chemistry is a physical science, meaning it is the study of nonliving systems. There are other physical sciences, but chemistry specifically is the study of matter in terms of what matter consists of, its properties, how it is used, and how it changes. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space or occupies volume. So almost anything that we can see, smell, taste, touch, or feel is matter and therefore falls under the study of chemistry.
Not only does chemistry allow us to study so many different aspects of our lives, it allows us to create and understand a lot of incredible things. We use chemistry to create new materials, such as plastics, synthetic fibers, pure metals, and alloyed metals for specific applications and ceramics, as well as cosmetics, paints, fertilizers, and even fuels. Through chemistry, we can understand the chemical reactions that occur within the body, allowing us to create medicines and treatments.
Chemistry is just one of the fundamental sciences. There are other wonderful fields of science that study other things, but science as a whole is an interdisciplinary endeavor. As we can see from the pyramid, these disciplines are built upon each other and rely upon each other to work. Science can be broken down into the physical sciences, which is the study of nonliving systems and of which chemistry is a part, and the life sciences, which study living organisms and living systems, although sometimes this top tier is referred to as social sciences and includes psychology.
In human behavior, psychology, and related disciplines, scientists look at how humans behave and interact with our surroundings as well as with other humans. To understand how we work on a chemical scale, we use biology. Biology, a life science, is the study of life and the processes and chemical reactions that give rise to and sustain life. Biology often uses chemistry to explain biological processes at the cellular level. In the same way, the fundamentals of chemistry are determined by physics, which is the study of matter and energy and their behavior over space and time. Likewise, physics is understood using the language of mathematics, which is the study of logic and numbers, including shapes, quantities, statistics, and arrangement.
We can see that ultimately all sciences has a fundamental basis of mathematics. Science really is a collaborative effort with much crossing over between the different levels of this pyramid. Nevertheless, they each have their own specific definition. Let’s bring back our answer options. From the possible answers, we have seen that (B) is correct. The statement that best describes the study of chemistry is (B). Chemistry is the study of matter and what its properties are, what it consists of, and how it changes.
