what everyday or common activity involves chemistry?

Question

today was my first day of chem class (im a junior in HS) and we have an assignment where we have to describe something we did over the summer that involves chemistry and what chemistry had to do with it. ive been thinking about it for quite a while and my mind is blank. the kid behind me was going to use building a fire which is a good one, but now i cant use that. im not asking for anyone to do my homework i just need a few ideas to get me moving. any details would help alot. if you have a source of went to school for chem please mention that, i would kind of like a reliable source. thanks in advance!

Answer 1

everything we do depends on chemistry in some way. For example when you eat a sandwich the primary digestive in your mouth pepsin begins to break down the starches in the bread almost immediately after you take a bite, then the chemicals in your stomach, mainly hydrochloric acid further breaks down complex sugars and starches into simple sugars such as glucose and fructose. But there's chemistry in other places of the body too, before you take a bite of that sandwich or even do almost anything your nervous system relies on the chemical acetylcholine to transmit neurochemical messages between neurons in the brain and nerves, without acetylcholine you would die instantly, also Hemoglobin is the chemical that transports oxygen to every cell in your body as Oxyhemoglobin and removes carbon dioxide as deoxyhemoglobin where it returns to the lungs to be exhaled. Your muscles, actually more specifically the mitochondria in the muscle cells, oxidize glucose from the blood stream creating carbon dioxide and lactic acid along with many other compounds along with providing energy to the muscle cells allowing them to contract.
Also you were born because of the chemical nitric oxide as it is one of the main known chemicals that are vasodilators that allow more blood flow through the arteries and is the main chemical to blame when you get an erection and is also what the medicine viagra acts on. And thats only a few of the millions of different chemical reactions that go on in the body. Outside of the body the chemical Sodium hypochlorite also known as bleach is used to clean clothes and to disinfect numerous household surfaces, Axe and many other spray on deoderants rely on aromatic hydrocarbons to produce the numerous smells or odors that they have, when you bake a cake the chemical carbon dioxide is what makes the difference between a nice airy soft cake and a "harder than a rock" kind of cake, your automobile or motorcycle or any other gas engine powered machine you can think of relies of the rapid oxidation of the mixture of hydrocarbons that we call gasolene or diesel fuel to power them.
I could just about go on forever naming different ways chemistry affects your family but I dont feel like doing that so I hope you got your answer.

Answer 2

How about living? At any given moment, many complex chemical reactions are occurring right inside you in order for you to stay alive. Food is digested and the chemical energy store in fats or used to move the many muscles in your body. Enzymes act as catalysts for reactions, reducing the activation energy and making it easier for your body to function.

Or how about cooking. Cooking is chemistry you can eat essentially. Following a written procedure (recipe) to mix the desired chemicals (ingredients) to form mixtures and solutions which you can cook, chemically changing the substance.
For example, baking a cake using yeast involves allowing the yeast bacterial to chemically convert some of the ingredients into Carbon Dioxide gas (thus making the cake rise and become fluffy).

Did you drive in a car over the summer? A car's engine relies on a chemical reaction (combustion) which occurs between the gasoline (octane) and the Oxygen gas in the air. This process is very exothermic and allows energy to be extracted from the chemicals in order to move the vehicles.

Or perhaps batteries in electronic gadgets. Batteries rely on a chemical reaction occurring inside them which produces an electric current. The chemical reaction inside the batteries is often used as an excellent example of "Re-dox" reactions, reduction and oxidation.

Answer 3

Making coffee is a chemistry technique most do every day (its an aqueous extraction).

Washing clothes is chemistry. The surfactants in the detergent helps to dissolve stains and dirt by making the materials more soluble in water.

Mow the lawn? Internal combustion engines extract energy from oxidizing (burning) organic fuel.

Paint anything? Paints contain dyes and pigments, but other chemicals to help them dry rapidly and stick to the surface on which they are applied.

The list is too long

Answer 4

Cooking- depending on what you cook, lets say you made mac'n'cheese, okay? Boiling the pasts isn't the chem, making the cheese sauce is. You take the milk and you add starch/enzymes and heat to thicken it. The starch molecules react with lactose and fatty acids in the milk and start condensing the milk (make it thicker), then the heat helps evaporate the water molecules in the milk, aslo to make it thicker and to help break bonds and connect molecules.

Answer 5

Cooking

Answer 6

you sitting at the computer. The computer is partly made of plastic. Plastic is founded by a chemist somewhere.

also the transistors because the transistors are made from metaloids which are semiconductive. This was better then the old vacuum tubes.

Answer 7

If you use batteries for anything, that would be a good example. Batteries use oxidation-reduction reactions to generate a flow of electrons.

Answer 8

Every single thing happening around you is Chemistry!

Answer 9

driving a car: combustion
digesting food: nutrients, enzymes etc are chemicals
medical or illegal drugs: drugs are chemicals
JUST A FEW IDEAS, GOOD LUCK IN YOUR CHEM CLASS!!!

Answer 10

Every time you add sugar to iced tea it is an example is solutions and dissolving solids in liquids.