Chemistry In Everyday Life

The Importance of Chemistry in Daily Life

We live in a world of matter. From the food that sustains our lives to various objects that have built up our physical culture, everything is made up of matter. The human body itself is a mixture of matter of differing types. The humans who used materials obtained from nature for centuries, later made new materials out of these to suit their needs. Now the humans have thousand of materials for their use - both natural and human made. The ability that humans acquired to make new materials from natural materials is the basis of human progress. When the structure of the material world and the nature of physical and chemical changes in them were studied, humans were able to make new materials and to control their different properties. The development of chemistry made this progress possible. The contribution of chemistry to fields like, agriculture, industries, health care, food industry, habitat, transport and research has been invaluable. Through chemical processes that scientists develop chemistry comes up every day with answers to ever increasing human needs.

Polymers:

Cotton is the material used for the manufacture of clothes for our daily use. Clothes are made by weaving together thick strands that are obtained by twisting together delicate fibres. Different kinds of fibres are utilized for different purposes.

    • Cotton
    • Coconut fibre
    • Jute
    • Silk

The hair of animals, paper, wood and rubber also contain such fibres. The varied properties of such fibres are due to the polymers present in them. From very early
times, humans have been using many polymers that are obtained from plants and animals. In modern times, we have been able to make substances that are similar, and with better
qualities with the help of chemistry. Some natural and human made polymers that are used in daily life are given below.