USE OF MATHEMATICS IN CHEMISTRY

Chemistry is the natural science which explores the composition and properties of substances.

Math is essential for chemistry. The necessary mathematical background for the study of

chemistry includes basic algebra, some trigonometry, and calculus.

The following are some examples.

(1) Being able to balance chemical equations is a very important skill for chemistry students. It’s

a simple mathematical exercise. Balancing a chemical equation refers to establishing the

mathematical relationship between the amounts of reactants and products involved in the

chemical reaction.

Let’s go more in detail.

A chemical equation is a statement that describes what happens in a chemical reaction.

In a chemical equation, we place the reactants (substances undergoing chemical reaction) on the

left side of the equation and the products (substances produced in a chemical reaction) on the

right side of the equation. We have reactants and products separated by an arrow and the arrow

always points in the direction of the products.

Consider the reaction of carbon with oxygen gas to produce carbon-dioxide.

C + O2 ---> CO2                    (2 is subscript)

The above equation is already balanced, because, it has an equal number of atoms of each

element in the reactants and the product. One carbon atom (C) and two oxygen atoms (O) on the

left side of the equation and it’s the same on the right side too.

Let’s look at one more example.

Sodium chloride is the common salt. Sodium and chlorine form sodium chloride.

Na + Cl2 ---> NaCl                 (2 is subscript)

1

The above equation is NOT balanced. It has two chlorine atoms on the left side, but, only

one on the right side of the equation.

Let’s balance this chemical equation.

2Na + Cl2 ---> 2NaCl             (2 is subscript only in Cl2)

It works! Notice that now there are equal number of atoms of each element in the reactants and

the product.

Chemical equations can be balanced conveniently using matrices or simultaneous equations.

A number of fields of chemistry use a significant amount of Math.

(2) Electrochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies the chemical action of electricity and

the production of electricity by chemical reactions. Diffusion in electrochemistry is completely

based on differential equations.

(3) Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms. Even biochemistry

has important topics which depend heavily on binding theory and kinetics.

Chemists use math in many ways, but one of the most common is probably in balancing the

equation of a chemical reaction. If you want to create a chemical by mixing together raw

materials or other chemicals, you need to figure out how much can be produced with how much

of each substance to avoid wasting materials.

For example, (this is unrealistic but it works) if you wanted to make pure water out of pure

hydrogen and oxygen, you would use the equation

H + O --> H2O. (See the Discussion page for more details)

Chemists work with much more complex chemical equations than the formation of water, so

they have to figure out how to make all the numbers match up with a combination of quick

mental math and intuition. Once the equation is balanced, they need to do some algebra (made

fairly easy with calculators and knowledge of how to "plug in" values) to find the optimal masses

to use.

2