can chemistry help reduce the cost of household commodities?

Answer 1

Chemistry has been helping to reduce the cost of household commodities from the time it was discovered that salting meats would preserve them, thus reducing a great deal of waste. Since fire is a chemical reaction, it can even be argued that learning to cook things reduced costs much earlier. Modern examples are fertilizers, refrigerants, soaps, lubricants, artificial flavorings, and synthesized items.

Answer 2

Household Commodities

Answer 3

yes

I am not talking about the chemistry of metal polish or of chemistry that you can accomplish with materials from your refrigerator. I am talking about chemistry that can be done at home, as opposed to in a school or professional lab, on a conservative budget and the assumption that you (like most people) can't just look up "Chemicals" in your local Yellow Pages and start ordering 5 minutes later.

If you have read any "Home Junior Chemistry Fun"-type books from the 1960s or earlier, you realize that times were much different back then. Books would regularly instruct you to visit the corner drugstore to obtain chemicals such as nitric acid, phosphorus, or mercury. Many factors have changed since 1950. Stricter laws about consumer safety, a lawsuit-happy culture, the rise of clandestine drug labs, and fears of violence from political extremists have all made it far more difficult to obtain chemicals today than it was 50 years ago. And if you've browsed through a catalog of reagents, online or off, you've come to realize that even if the companies would sell to you, you would go through money very quickly. As of 2002, chemistry is perhaps the most difficult of the sciences to adopt as a hobby. Modern books of home chemistry experiments reflect these changes in the culture as well, and seem afraid to perform experiments that involve any hazard whatsoever. So you get to safely, thrillingly mix baking soda and vinegar and do chromatography of non-toxic water-based inks.

All hope is not yet lost, however. There are still enough materials available in a staggering variety of places to provide the home experimenter with a wide variety of chemicals. Much lab equipment can be adapted from common items or assembled without too much difficulty. And, as a last resort, it is much easier to buy lab equipment outright than it is to buy chemicals.