/sci/ - Science & Math

>>6389014
chem sucks, i feel for you.

one of the first fields that will be completely automated.

>>6389014
Watch breaking bad.

Try paying attention to how much around you revolves around chemistry. I always find learning about the applications of a certain area of study is effective at helping me gain interest and understand its importance.

Your computer's semiconductor components and circuit boards are etched using electrochemical processes. The fuel your car runs on is refined from crude oil via chemistry. The tires of your car contain rubber that is cured and vulcanized; steel bands that are smelted from raw ore; high-tensile-strength fibers made from molecules thousands of atoms long.

If all else fails, look up James Yawn's RCandy recipe and cook yourself up some rocket fuel. Then do some stoichiometry calculations to confirm the chemical mixture ratios you used.

The worst part is that, unlike math, none of the "rules" in chemistry are universal. There are always random fucking exceptions to almost any "rule".

Chemistry courses are fun as hell. How can you think they are horrible?

>>6389014
Read science-fiction

>>6389041
Thanks. I mean that's sort of what I'm after. It just seems like math and physics (even circuits and stuff) is so much easier to "see" and relate to. The Chem labs just feel inconsequential by comparison even if I know they aren't. I also get that this course is giving fundamentals for future courses, but I have no intention of taking more so it makes it hard. But kinda like you said, maybe if I think about it more I can drum up some enthusiasm.

>>6389056
Any recommendations?

>>6389112
>I mean that's sort of what I'm after. It just seems like math and physics (even circuits and stuff) is so much easier to "see" and relate to.
I can sorta relate; certain areas for me are easier to visualize and relate than others, although not the same as yours or anyone else's necessarily. For instance, I can "see" and relate to thermodynamics and heat transfer better than most people can. Classical mechanics is of course one of the most "visual" fields of study, but I have a harder time with electromagnetism and circuits, and even harder still with math. But that's me.

Just keep your eyes open, you'll find chemistry's a lot more relevant than you might think.

>>6389020

Yeah, organic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis (i.e. palladium source + ligand + substrate combinatorial shit) will probably be the first. Couple of great papers in the past decade about using algorithms to solve syntheses from known commercially available materials. Plus it's one of the fields that treats graduate students most like slave labor. Total synthesis is just h-index-penis-swinging (oh look how well I can solve this arbitrary puzzle! I can make a few mgs of material and all it took was multiple years of graduate students slaving away, and it's not practical at all), and funding for it is a lot more difficult nowadays. Reaction development is a lot more practical, at least I would think.

>>6389014

Sounds like your chem classes are poorly structured. Organic and physical will be a breath of fresh air, hopefully.

Chemistry is pretty cool, it's really fun once you get past gen chem. Gen chem is hand waving. You ought to take orgo once you transfer out, then you'll start to learn why bonds form. It's hard to stay motivated in gen chem because it is boring, I would suggest working in a lab or joining some chem club for the time being to get more into it. Sorry I can't be more help. I'm a chem major and I hated gen chem

Chemistry doesn't get fun until second semester Organic chemistry. Get involved in a lab when you transfer. You'll be doing lab monkey work for the most part, but once you prove your worth the key is to ask to get involved in the PI's projects, and more importantly get friendly with the grad students so that they'll ask you to help out and teach you techniques.

>>6389042
Energy and symmetry are the rules of chemistry. A lot of people here took gen chem and maybe ochem and haven't put the picture together. Yeah, some stuff is crazy, but that's the fun of chemistry.

>>6389020
>muh pure math 300k starting

>>6389666
>Gen chem is hand waving. You ought to take orgo once you transfer out, then you'll start to learn why bonds form.

Unless you're talking a physical organic class don't make me laugh. Sophomore o-chem is hand-waving to the max.

>MUH ARROWS! MUH LEWIS DOTS!

I mean, I love it, but inorganic and physical chemists who aren't limited to teaching mostly pre-nursing people do a much better job of explaining chemical bonding.

Gen Chem and Orgo are both magical handwavey bullshit, but once you get past that it's really interesting stuff.

OP here. Thanks for the replies guys. Not sure I have any intention of taking past General Chemistry (or even taking 102, if I can avoid it), but it's encouraging to know it leads somewhere that makes more sense. Right now it just seems like a lot of memorization and not much real explanation of why anything acts the way it does I guess. Kinda hard to get into because it doesn't feel like a real "system" so to speak, just a lot of random stuff.

Dude who majored in Chemistry, why'd you stick with it if you disliked the intro classes?

>>6389042

Conservation of mass is pretty universal.

Also the replies are actually helpful. I mean, not to be judge-y or anything, but it being comm college, most of my classmates are just trying to pass through and seem to like the class about as little as I do. : /

>>6389710
dot and arrow mechanisms usually don't have a physical basis outside the few really well-studied reactions, but they do have predictive value.

Chem 102 is much better

>>6390950

That's because the majority of people do not like Chemistry. They do it because the class is a requirement for their real major.

>>6390895
Different Chem Major Reporting In.

I Enjoyed my first chemistry classes. The labs at y school were paired with the chapters of the book... I guess that's why I thought the class was understandable. My old Community College instructor was a pretty cool, still talk to him to this day about my chemistry courses.

Learning what the names mean is so that you can actually have a conversation about the chemicals without having the formula in-front of you. If i'm talking about a Methyl, Phenyl, Aryl, Hydroxy, etc. group on a given carbon chain having an understanding of what those words mean is important.

The same kind of thing happens in Organic and Biochemistry too. You have to learn what the 20 most common amino acid side chains are, if for no other reason than to be able to read/discuss the subject with any clarity.

I can sympathize though, junior chemistry taking Engineering Physics one (first time ever taking a physics course). A lot of this just feels like learning to define the same thing in more detailed ways over and over and over.