Yes, what even is a chemical?
In: Chemistry
Anything with a defined composition at the atomic level.
Water is a chemical – it is defined as H2O, i.e. an oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, more or less bound together (liquid water likes to wiggle-jiggle around and pass hydrogens to each other and share them with anything dissolved in the water, but that basic unit of H2O is water).
Sand is *not* a chemical. There is no strict definition of what atoms are in sand; sand tends to contain a lot of different things.
But silica, the main ingredient of sand, *is* a chemical. It is SiO2, or one silicon atom and two oxygen atoms.
A chemical is anything that is only made from one kind of molecule for example (Pure) water is just water H2O, oxygen is just oxygen, but air isn’t a chemical because it is made of Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide etc. in the example of water (H20) even though water is made from hydrogen and oxygen the molecules are stuck together at an atomic level this makes it a chemical compound. If the different elements/compounds are mixed together but the atoms arnt stuck together through chemical bonds then you have a mixture. If there is only one type of atom for example Oxygen you have a chemical element.
Chemical has different meanings depending on context:
* Everything is chemicals or a mixture of chemicals using the technical definition; chemicals are elements or elemental compounds.
* In popular use chemicals are things made synthetically rather than being derived from a natural product. There is a heavy implication that chemicals are dangerous or unhealthy in this context.
A collection of atoms from different elements bounded together through them sharing electrons.
Different elements have different amounts of protons. Hydrogen has 1, helium 2, carbon 6, uranium 92 ect. This tells us how many electrons it usually has because the positive charge of protons cancels out with electrons.
There are ideal amounts of electrons to have. These are 0, 2, 10, 18 and so on. Since Carbon has 6 electrons, it wants to steal 4 electrons. So if carbon meets 4 hydrogens, the hydrogens want to get rid of their electrons, the carbon wants to receive them. They then bond together and are all happy and relaxed creating methane.
If oxygen comes over, ultimately the carbon and hydrogen would be more happy with oxygen, so if you break their bonds, they’ll reform into carbon dioxide and water. This is how methane burns. You give a spark that breaks apart the methane, and then they release energy as they get more relaxed with oxygen.
Everything is a chemical. Or at least, everything is made of chemicals. A fruit salad would be nothing without a variety of fruits, and your brain would be nothing without a variety of chemicals. Chemicals is ingredients. I also haven’t taken a chemistry class since grade 11
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