Have you ever wondered how a subject such as economics could ever be linked to one of the natural sciences such as chemistry? Well, even though it may come as a surprise to many (it certainly did for me) chemistry and economics are not so different after all.

Both economics and chemistry share similar concepts. In economics, one must create models to predict and explain different actions. A lot of analysis is therefore based on these models. This means that both chemists and economists have to be critical thinkers and analyse any patterns that they spot in everyday life. However, the main difference between chemistry and economics might be that while one can simply test their theories in a science lab for chemistry. Testing economic theories in the real world isn’t so straightforward. Partly because they are based on real people and their reactions so many may consider it ethical if economists try to control the tens of variables just to study how something as simple as an increase in the number of companies selling hamburgers would affect consumers choices. Thus unlike chemists, economists can’t be 100% certain of what is going to happen as people are not very predictable due to different behaviours and rationales. That is not to say that economists still can’t deduce generalised patterns regarding what is most likely to happen, it’s just that they won’t be correct all the time.

What’s actually interesting is the number of parallels you could draw between chemistry and economics. For example, writing this article made m consider how atoms are so similar to people in a market. You could say that atoms want to become more stable by gaining full outer electron shells. However, they can’t just create more electrons to fill the outer shells, this is somewhat similar to the concept of scarcity in economics. So, atoms form ions which react together to form ionic compounds. For example, sodium has the self-interest of not gaining electrons due to a low electronegativity value (the equivalent of consumer spending money to buy goods) thus it gives up one electron while chlorine which wants to gain an electron due to high electronegativity number and forms a compound (the equivalent of a producer selling a good). Both of them act in their own interests and in the end both of them are better off than they were before.

Now, of course, atoms don’t think like humans and don’t have goals they want to accomplish. However, this example does help us highlight the similarities between the two subjects and appreciate how economic theory can be applied to chemistry. More importantly, it allows one to imagine how the 1.2×10¹⁸ atoms of sodium and chlorine would go around conducting business and whether given their traits indeed be the most successful businessmen on the planet. Lastly doing this activity made me wonder how all my different subjects link to each other and whether such bizarre links exist amongst all the different IB subjects.