Simple Everyday Chemistry - Chemical Reactions That We Often Witness

General chemistry is a science that is deeply incorporated in our everyday lives, but most of the people are probably not aware of it being so. After reading this article, you will think a bit more about this interesting science the next time you light a match or a lighter, or for example, change the antifreeze in your car. Everything mentioned can serve as an excellent example for chemistry processes that we can see often.

When you light a match, a relatively complex reaction occurs in the tip of the match that contains potassium chlorate (an oxidant), powdered sulfur, starch, glue and some other ingredients that are not as important as the mentioned ones. The striking surface on the match box, contains powdered glass, red phosphorus, glue and also few other, not that important, ingredients. When you strike a match on the described match box surface, the heat of the friction initiates a reaction between the potassium chlorate in the match head and the red phosphorus on the striking surface. That way sparks are formed, which finally ignite the match head that continues to burn after that, because they contain a small amount of a pyrotechnic composition based on potassium chlorate and sulfur.

We also mentioned changing the antifreeze in your car. The use of antifreeze is also an excellent example of common chemistry. It is added to the cooling system of your car because it lowers the freezing point of water. That way the freezing point of water gets much lower than the lowest temperatures that occur in the winter, and because of that, the cooling liquid never gets a chance to solidify and cause serious damage to your car. In addition, most modern antifreeze solutions also contain substances that inhibit corrosion.

A lighter is also an interesting example of everyday chemistry reactions. When you press down the wheel of the lighter, the friction between the wheel and the flint causes sparks to be formed. At the moment when sparks created, the butane/propane gas is being released and it catches fire, and then continues to flow and burn, as long as you have your thumb pressed down on the lighter. The products of the combustion of butane and propane are water, and carbon dioxide.

These were just some of the many everyday situations where chemistry can give you an answer on how something works. Many other examples can also be found on the internet, and if you would like to learn more about this interesting and important science, it's never a bad idea to start with some of the basic chemistry tutorials [http://www.helpchemistry.net/chemistry-tutorials-about-chemistry.html].
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