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Asked by inesfontes to Ben, Jony, Katharine, Mark, Peter on 15 Nov 2011. This question was also asked by conorseymour, josephminiscientist, annabelsusan.
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Ben Still answered on 15 Nov 2011:
Chemistry is great fun I loved playing with chemicals and fire, in a controlled and sensible manner of course. But… I am going to sound really arrogant here when I say that Chemistry is a branch of physics… When you study science to the degree level my friends realised that they ended up doing more and more physics in their chemistry degree, such as quantum mechanics. That is because chemistry is the science of the electrons in atoms, how they form bonds and therefore molecules; ultimately the way electrons behave is described by physics.
So chemistry is good fun but ultimately physics has more to offer. But I will always jump at the chance to drop some potassium in a bowl of water 😉
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Mark Basham answered on 15 Nov 2011:
My dad is a chemist, and I’m sure he would agree with you, but I have to side with Ben and as a Physicist, Physics is the best.
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Katharine Schofield answered on 15 Nov 2011:
I’m not sure you’re going to get a particularly balanced view from us lot!… I’m siding with physics too. 🙂
And why? Well, it’s the most fundamental of all the sciences, it gets down to the very basics of everything (and you need it to explain a lot of chemistry…). Allegedly Ernest Rutherford, discoverer of the nucleus, said ‘All science is either physics or stamp collecting’…which, if he really said that, was unfortunate for him because his Nobel prize was in Chemistry.
Comments
inesfontes commented on :
Thanks but i find physics boring!!!……….
Mark commented on :
Nah, It cant be boring, it covers everything from the large like the big bang, to how a star works, to the small like what atoms are made of, and everything in-between like the weather, how engines work and so many other things I cant mentions them all here 🙂
Anything but dull in my opinion
inesfontes commented on :
🙂 ………
edwardgowland commented on :
Isn’t Physics bascically applied maths though?
Katharine commented on :
You certainly can’t do physics without maths, that’s for sure. There’s more to it than just maths though as you have to find ways of testing out your theories – you need a whole different set of skills for doing that.
Ben commented on :
In the same way that writing a text book is applied English literature – Maths is a language the is utilised by Physicists to write down the laws of Nature.