Magic of Chemistry

I love mathematics! I always loved it since I was a kid. I also liked Physics, though not as much as Mathematics. My liking for Physics increased a lot after I left school, and later got introduced to lectures and books of Richard Feynman and few others who made Physics interesting!

As a student, I didn’t like Biology as much. That changed later when I read books on evolution and watched Dawkins lectures and then many more by other biologists.

However, the subject I disliked the most was Chemistry. I wasn’t bad at it, but I didn’t enjoy studying it. And there was no change after I left school.

If my love for Mathematics can be expressed as 100 units, my liking for Physics would now be 70, and interest in Biology would be 60…and “hatred” for Chemistry would be 2. You get my point…

But was that because of the subject or the way it was taught?

I always feel that you have a natural inclination/interest in any subject or a field. So, irrespective of how that subject is taught, you would still develop interest in that subject if you have a liking for it. However, for other subjects, where you don’t have a natural inclination, the teaching (and hence the teacher) plays significant role in making or breaking your interest in that subject.

Chemistry was never taught to us in an interesting manner. In fact I never thought that it could be made interesting. But I was wrong – terribly wrong.

I just came across this amazing lecture by Andrew Szydlo on “Magic of Chemistry“. In this 80 minute long lecture + demo Andrew shows wonderful experiments which makes Chemistry so much fun and engaging topic. If someone had taught me Chemistry this way, I’m sure my scoring for Chemistry would have been much much higher!

This also reiterates the power of Youtube and internet, in general, to help education in huge way! Mark Twain once said: “Don’t let your schooling interfere with your education“. That’s perfectly true today! Don’t regret that you don’t like a subject because it was not properly taught in the school. Your education continues far beyond schooling!

Now, do watch this wonderful lecture – The Magic of Chemistry!