Chemistry is widely known as the central science. This scientific discipline is core to the study of matter and its ability to combine and separate into diverse substance forms. In the twenty-first century, numerous branches of chemistry help humankind live better lives through discovery and innovation. Chemistry is influential to a number of critical industries, such as medicine, product manufacturing, and engineering.
Understanding the use of chemistry—and ongoing chemical reactions—in everyday life provides vital insight into the beautiful, complex world we live in. Let’s take a closer look at the most common types of chemical reactions in everyday life.
Photosynthesis: Biochemistry
Biochemistry studies chemical reactions occurring within living organisms, including our favorite flora, fauna, and foliage. Photosynthesis is one biochemical process you know of as the basis of the food chain. This natural response is nothing more than the Earth’s plants making their own food source.
We can attribute a similar chemical reaction to the discoloration of leaves—such as spots—and the changing of color during the autumnal season. Those stunning sights do not occur by random happenstance. A liposoluble pigment—known as chlorophyll—breaks down within the leaves. This chemical separation transforms them from their traditional green to red, yellow, and orange.
Baking a Cake: Inorganic Chemistry
Are you aware of any other common types of chemical reactions in everyday life? You may not bake up a delectable cake every day of the week, but its innate process of inorganic change is another prime example. Baking is a customary activity that involves an inorganic reaction. Inorganic chemistry is a subcategory that studies the properties and reactions of chemical compounds, such as metals and minerals.
A number of common ingredients are mixed compounds and essential key chemical leavening agents. The heat applied throughout a cake baking process induces chemical changes in the ingredients, including flour, sugar, baking powder, and eggs. Interestingly enough, this process is an endothermic reaction, which creates stronger bonds. New substances form after combining and baking the ingredients. Following the completed reaction, you cannot separate the cake into its original components once again.
Ripening of Fruit: Organic Chemistry
Do you ever set purchased fruit on the counter, blink and forget about it, then suddenly find that it’s ripened up? The ripening of fruit is an organic chemical reaction that occurs through the formation of new chemical compounds. Since these compounds are carbon-based, scientists classify this reaction as an example of organic chemistry. But how does this common change come about?
Ripening is a natural chemical process that changes a fruit’s composition through a compound known as ethylene. The ongoing objective is to attain suitable characteristics for consumption: good color, flavor, texture, and quality. Some fruit can ripen off the branch, while others cannot ripen after harvest. Fascinating, right? At the end of the day, most everything we see, taste, touch, or do on a daily basis is thanks to chemical reactions.
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