In our daily routines, we often rely on water, soap, body lotions, shampoos, and plastic combs to maintain hygiene. We also consume essentials like bread, vegetables, fruits, milk, tea, porridge, sugar, and honey, among other foods. Have you ever paused to consider how these necessities are obtained? And have you wondered how our lives would be without them?
Well, some things like water and milk occur naturally. But others, like soap, body lotions, sugar, and bread, are made from other things or substances. Chemistry helps make all of these things. Even for naturally occurring substances, chemistry helps us understand them better, allowing us to use them in the right way to improve and simplify our lives. So, chemistry affects everything we do every day.
To help you figure out how chemistry affects our daily lives, let’s see a few areas where chemistry is applied
Examples of Chemistry in Everyday Life
- Food industry: Chemistry is used processing of canned foods, food preservatives, and food packaging materials.
- Household Cleaning Products: Chemistry is applied in the formulation of detergents, disinfectants, and other cleaning agents.
- Pharmaceutical Industry: Chemistry is used in the development and production of medications and drugs.
- Agricultural Industry: Knowledge of chemistry is used to understand the nature of soil (acidity or alkalinity), formulation of pesticides, production of fertilizers, and to figure out the most appropriate type of crops for different soil types.
- Brewing Industry: Chemistry is applied in the fermentation of carbohydrates to make all the alcoholic beverages that you see around our liquor stores.
- Cosmetics Industry: Chemistry is used in the formulation of skincare products, makeup, and fragrances.
- Electronics Industry: Chemistry is integral to semiconductor manufacturing, circuit board assembly, and battery technology.
- Petroleum Industry: Chemistry is used in the extraction of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, and paraffin, which are all important sources of fuel.
- Automotive Industry: Chemistry knowledge is applied in many areas of automotive manufacturing processes, including the production of paints, lubricants, and polymers used in vehicle components.
- Textile and Leather Industry: Chemistry is used in the manufacture of all the synthetic fibres you see around.
- Manufacture of Plastics: Chemistry knowledge is used in the manufacture of all the plastics you see around: buckets, cups, polythene bags, chairs, pipes, etc
- Photography: Chemistry knowledge is critical in film development
- Mining Industry: Geologists use chemistry knowledge in mining various types of minerals and in studying the earth.
- Construction Industry: Chemistry is applied in the development of construction materials such as cement, concrete, and adhesives.
- Environmental Science: Chemistry knowledge is used to monitor air and water quality and in assessing and mitigating environmental pollution.
This list barely scratches the surface of the many ways chemistry impacts our daily lives. The influence of chemistry is immense. If you observe carefully, you’ll notice countless examples all around you. As we mentioned in our definition of chemistry for beginners, chemistry is everywhere and in everything, even if we don’t notice it.
The Central Science
When studying other scientific disciplines, such as biology, physics, geology, agriculture, engineering, medicine, and so forth, you will notice that chemistry is an integral part of your curriculum. This is because chemistry is fundamental to the understanding of these disciplines.
See, chemistry provides fundamental understanding of matter, its properties, and its interactions, all of which are essential for advancements in the above fields and more. Many scientific phenomena can also be explained through chemical principles, making chemistry a cornerstone of scientific inquiry and innovation.
Put simply, chemistry serves as a bridge between other scientific disciplines and that’s why it is often referred to as the “central science”. You can think of chemistry as the heart of many other disciplines. Just like your heart pumps blood to your body, chemistry helps other sciences work together.
