What is chemistry class about

A field that offers almost unparalleled potential for the advancement of human life is medicinal chemistry.

Take a scientific look at the molecular basis of drug discovery in a course from Davidson College. Learn how research scientists find molecules with desired biological activity and the approaches taken to optimize these molecules into safe and effective drugs.

Explore these and other free online chemistry courses on edX. Gain insight and experience with reaction mechanisms, stoichiometry, organic synthesis, chemical kinetics, stereochemistry, mass spectrometry, chemical bonding, and molecular spectroscopy.

Chemistry Courses. All Subjects Science Chemistry Find free online chemistry courses covering a broad range of topics from quantum mechanics to the science behind what we eat. View all edX Courses. What is Chemistry? The second semester continues to explore carbonyl addition reactions and multistep synthesis.

Additional topics include the reactions of alkenes, aromatics, and amines, free radical reactions, and the chemistry of carbohydrates. In physical chemistry, you will use calculus as a tool to derive many of the important equations that you learned in general chemistry from first principles. Physical chemistry courses may be taken in either order. The fall semester is focused on the fascinating world of quantum mechanics and how it can be used to describe the structure of molecules.

In the spring semester you will derive the laws of thermodynamics and kinetics, which connect the behavior of macroscopic quantities of matter with the properties of individual molecules. What will you learn in Chemistry?

Chemistry is the study of matter and the chemical reactions between substances. Matter is essentially anything in the world that takes up space and has mass.

A basic chemical hypothesis first emerged in Classical Greece when Aristotle defined the four elements of fire, air, earth, and water.

It was not until the 17th and 18th centuries when scientists such as Robert Boyle and Antoine Lavoisier began to reshape the old alchemical traditions into a rigorous scientific discipline. As one of the natural sciences, chemistry provides scientists with insight into other physical sciences and powerful analytical tools for engineering applications.

The biological sciences and their offshoots, such as psychology, are rooted in biochemistry, and scientists are only now beginning to understand how the different levels of organization influence each other. For example, the basis of modern medicine is the biochemical processes of the human body. Chemistry has the power to explain innumerable phenomena in the world, from the ordinary to the bizarre.

Why does iron rust? What makes propane such an efficient, clean-burning fuel?