The Language of Chemistry: Maintaining Convention, Removing Ambiguity, and Educating Effectively By Megan Roosen-Runge

Communication, the process of transferring information, is an important topic to discuss and explore whether it involves the communication of ideas, emotions, opinions, or concepts. Much is taken for granted as far as the methodology of communication is concerned. The average person does not take the time to question the ways in which they take in and impart thoughts to others. As discussed in the curriculum of Honors 213, the field of mathematics uses a systematic and sophisticated approach to communicating theorems, propositions, and models. Using logic, axiomatic systems, and a commonly accepted set of symbols and language, mathematics is, at least at a fundamental level, interwoven into the vernacular of modern day communication. Other subjects, some less pervasive than mathematics, also adhere to a methodical approach to communicating the substance of their discipline – chemistry is such a subject. Understanding the linguistic structure of mathematics enables one to engage with the material; just as understanding chemistry relies on a foundational knowledge of the chemical language. As Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg once stated, “much of life can be understood in rational terms if expressed in the language of chemistry. ” During experimentation, chemist