[pjerem]

Yeah, that’s it.

I didn’t "get" chemistry back in my school days and it was a real frustration because, well, of course I had bad grades but what saddened me were that I still found the topic to be very interesting and I loved physics, which I was pretty good at and I could see how the two were magically interconnected. But I failed to grasp the "logic" behind the system.

That’s truly one of my regrets because chemistry is probably one of the most important fundamental science for humanity’s future.

But that’s ok, I love computer science too and I did "get" it (mostly). Thanks for the awesome semiconductors, chemists !

[nkmnz]

The way chemistry is taught in schools isn't very logic in a lot of ways – it's based on heuristics. It's mostly some empirical rules, but if feels like you have more exceptions from those rules than real applications. The reasons are that 1) each molecule is a complex and complicated quantum mechanical system and 2) each observable unit of chemistry (one or more substances and their transitions in reactions or change of state) is a thermodynamic system with complex statistics. Highschoolers - not unlike alchemists - lack the math to describe these problems, so they are taught heuristics that are useful in understand a lot (but not all) everyday-chemistry.

[vibrio]

Your phrase “logic behind the system” resonates with me. I loved and thrived in organic chemistry but it took hours and hours of sitting working through syntheses over and over-pulling books off library shelves looking for more examples. When things clicked it was beautiful. Many of my pre-med classmates were determined to memorize their way out of it, and I pleaded with them that it was impossible. It’s not list of parameters it is a way of thinking and more complex pattern recognition. They were likely busy with other pre-med stuff and had to allocate time elsewhere. I ended up pursuing microbiology/molecular biology as I didn’t have the financial runway to switch or expand majors at that point in my life, no regrets but I loved the logic of chemistry and probably could have led to some cool things had I done both.