“There’s Hydrogen and Helium,
Then Lithium, Beryllium,
Boron, Carbon everywhere
Nitrogen all through the air…”
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Well, I regret to inform you that you have answered incorrectly. To a lot of people, chemistry seems to be at the bottom of the list of “most preferred science disciplines,” partly because it can be very conceptual and abstract, much like theoretical physics and biology, and it can also be very practical and demands a high degree of exactitude, as in the case of quantitative chemistry. It also incorporates a great deal of what many consider a deal-breaker: math.
Even though I am a chemistry major and harbor great passion for this area of study, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t days when I just want to drop my chemistry textbooks into a tub full of acid and casually watch the chemical slowly burn through layers of pure torture and agony. Here are 9 things that make chemistry majors fantasize about murdering their chemistry teachers.
1. Math is not the same with “sig figs.”
The rules for significant figures are so simple yet so complicated to the point that I have no idea what to put down as my answer when I am literally staring at the answer on my calculator.
2. Wearing 2 pairs of glasses during lab because you are myopic and can’t distinguish a beaker from an Erlenmeyer flask from afar.
3. One more drop till endpoint! Ahh, it’s too pink! You missed it!
4. The best way to lose points for absolutely no reason at all? Don’t sign your lab report.
Or better yet, only label the headings for the first page and leave out the rest because they’re all stapled and you think the teacher would know they all go together. Common sense much?
5. Type 2 + 2 on the calculator to make sure no significant figure gets lost in the process.
You can’t even do simple mental math calculations because you’re too afraid to miss important sig fig rules.
6. Honesty is not always the best policy
As demonstrated by how easy it is to have a few points deducted from just writing “human mistake” as possible sources of error in chemistry experiments.
7. You somehow become the clumsiest person on earth while trying to take the weighing paper off the balance.
8. How pink is too pink? Because to me, it’s barely pink.
My quant chemistry lab teacher once said that girls had more advantages over boys when it comes to doing titration in that they were capable of distinguishing many more shades of pink than boys could. Funny how he is a guy himself.
And finally…
9. Accidentally add ethanol to a solution instead of distilled water because the two bottles are indistinguishable from one another and someone forgot to label them.
Yep! That has happened to me before. Thank the Lord it didn’t mess up my results.
Ever think about becoming a science major? If yes, then chemistry is not the way to go! Your GPA is worth more than this.
