Química

La Química es la rama de la ciencia preocupado por la composición, propiedades y estructura de la materia, y cómo diferentes sustancias reaccionan entre sí. Es el estudio de los cambios que experimenta la materia ya sea adquirir conocimientos, como en 'pura química', o aplicarlo a un objetivo específico, como en 'química aplicada'. La química es una ciencia que trata de descubrir qué sustancias se hacen y aprender cómo las propiedades de las sustancias se relacionan con sus composiciones.

Hay cinco campos tradicionales de estudio de la química. Ellos incluyen orgánica, inorgánica, bioquímica, analítica, y físico. Hay un número de científicos creacionistas involucrados en cada una de las diferentes áreas de estudio. Uno de los padres fundadores de la química fue el creacionista Robert Boyle a quien la química moderna debe gratitud enorme por su trabajo, escritos e investigación. Boyle amaba la verdad de Dios, que le ayudó a ver los errores grandes de la teoría alquímica que estaban obstaculizando el desarrollo de lo que hoy es la química científica.

Campos

Química Orgánica

A chemical experiment where a glycine-nitrate process is used to produce ultrafine metal oxide powder.

La química orgánica es el estudio de las propiedades de los compuestos de carbono que son orgánicos. (Todos los compuestos orgánicos contienen carbono, pero algunos compuestos de carbono, como dióxido de carbono, se consideran inorgánicos, ya que no contienen enlaces químicos simples entre el carbono y hidrógeno.) Although there are specific areas of study that certain scientists choose to work in, the boundaries between the five main areas are not stable. Many times, a scientist will jump into one form of study to solve a problem in another. Many organic chemists use analytical chemistry to determine the composition of an organic chemical.

Inorganic Chemistry

Inorganic chemistry puts emphasis on the study of synthesis, structure, thermodynamics, reactivity, spectroscopy, and bonding properties of compounds. In general, it is the study of chemicals that do not contain carbon. Inorganic chemicals are found in non-living things like rocks and minerals.

This field covers all chemical compounds except the organic compounds containing C-H bonds. Those are subjects of organic chemistry. Although the two areas of study are supposed to be opposite, the studies sometimes overlap.

The classes of inorganic compounds are the oxides, the carbonates, the sulfates and the halides. They in general have high melting points, and are not good conductors in the solid state.

Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemicals of living systems and their interactions. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components, such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and other biomolecules. Biochemistry studies the chemical properties of important biological molecules, in particular the chemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions.

Some areas of biochemistry include the genetic code, protein synthesis, cell membrane transport, and signal transduction. A large study has been on cell metabolism and the endocrine system. They have been described in great detail.

Analytical Chemistry

This program works closely with many analytical chemists to determine how much lead the water contains so that they can clear the lead from the water.

Analytical chemistry is the area of study that leans toward gaining knowledge of the composition of different kinds of matter. Unlike other areas of study like inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry, analytical chemistry is not restricted to any particular type of chemical compound or reaction. Properties studied in analytical chemistry include molecular morphologies, distributions of species, and composition and species identity.

This area of science asks a lot of questions, but the study generally ends once the questions have been answered. Analytical chemistry generally does not attempt to use chemistry or understand its basis, but it has had many outgrowths of discoveries after the "questions" were answered. A common question that a scientist in analytical chemistry would ask would be, "How much lead is in drinking water?"

Physical Chemistry

Physical chemistry uses physics to study macroscopic, microscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems. It traditionally uses the principles, practices and concepts of thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mechanics, and kinetics. It is the area that deals with the mechanism, the energy transfer, and the rate of matter as it is changing.

For example, a physical chemist might study factors that affect breathing rates during exercise. It is the goal of physical chemists to develop an understanding at the molecular and atomic level of how chemical reactions occur and materials behave. This kind of knowledge is essential to all areas of chemistry. After being asked how to describe what physical chemistry is like, Gilbert Newton Lewis, a well-known scientist said, "Physical chemistry is everything that is interesting!"

Nuclear Chemistry

Main Article: Nuclear Chemistry

Nuclear chemistry is a sub-field of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes and nuclear properties. Of particular interest are the process involved with the splitting and combining of atoms to make new substances and energy.

History

Before major study was done in biochemistry, it was generally believed that life did not follow the laws of science the way non-living things did. It was thought that only living beings could produce living molecules, but that thought changed in 1828 when a German chemist named Friedrich Wöhler (1810-1882) published a paper on the synthesis of urea. It proved that organic compounds could be created artificially. Urea synthesis was very important for biochemistry because it showed that a compound known to be produced only by biological organisms could be produced in a laboratory, under controlled conditions, from matter that wasn't alive. He was originally studying organic chemistry, but his pioneering greatly impacted the study of biochemistry.

Robert Boyle was a devout Christian who contributed much to the study of chemistry and is considered by many as the "father of modern chemistry". During the time when alchemy was very popular he made great advances in chemistry, and praised God for every discovery he made. Some of his major contributions were:

1. He made a vacuum pump that he used to prove that air was important to transmit sound.
2. He made the formulation of his gas law (called Boyle's law) which says that if the temperature is constant, pressure is inversely proportional to volume. (That means: as pressure increases, volume of a gas decreases and vice-versa.)
3. He changed the way the modern world thought about chemical elements (that they are the smallest part of a substance that cannot be separated into simpler substances).
4. He created the scientific method.
5. He helped others understand the difference between compounds and mixtures.

Laws

Main Article: Scientific laws

• Avogadro's Law: Equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules regardless of their chemical nature and physical properties.
• Boyle's Law (Robert Boyle): In a gas, the product of pressure and volume remains constant.
• Charles's Law: In gases, volume and temperature are directly proportional. Thus, for two cases, V1 / T1 = V2 / T2, where V1 and T1 are the initial volume and temperature of the gas, and V2 and T2 are the final volume and temperature of the gas.
• Dulong-Petit Law: The gram-atomic heat capacity (specific heat times atomic weight) of an element is a constant. There are exceptions to this law, and it is not exact.
• Fick's Law of Diffusion: The net diffusion rate of a gas across a fluid membrane is proportional to the difference in partial pressure, proportional to the area of the membrane and inversely proportional to the thickness of the membrane.
• Fourier's Law: Heat flow through a homogenous solid is directly proportional to the area, A, of the section at right angles to the direction of heat flow, and to the temperature difference along the path of heat flow.
• Graham's Law: The rate at which gases diffuse is inversely proportional to the square root of their densities.
• Henry's Law: The mass of a gas which will dissolve into a solution is directly proportional to the partial pressure of that gas above the solution.
• Ideal Gas Law: PV = nRT where n = number of moles, R = universal gas constant = 8.3145 J/mol K; T = temperature.