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Why Chemistry and Economics are (kind of) the same

Chemistry and economics. To people who have little experience in both subjects, they may seem like two completely different kinds of subjects, each dealing with their own ideas and concepts. While this may be true, since chemists generally deal with molecules and atoms and chemicals and reactions and so on and so forth, while economists deal with how money flows and of production and how businesses work. However, both subjects tend to boil down to very similar things, which is that they both tend to study how things work.

 

For example, in chemistry, one might attempt to explain or to understand why multiple elements may react in certain ways. In economics, one might do the exact same thing, just different ‘reactants’ such as a government policy and a market for a certain good.

(Kwat)

Another similarity is the impact that the subjects can have on the world. While the impacts of chemistry on the modern era may be more obvious, such as the development of new medicines, studies in economics can still have very large and lasting impacts, such as changes in taxation on national scales.

 

Both economics and chemistry are also similar in the way that they require people who study them to be able to think in certain ways. Both chemical reactions and economic markets have numerous factors involved, where barely changing even a single factor can have huge impacts on the overall system. When studying the subjects, people must be able to piece together many different factors, all in an attempt to reach a certain goal, such as improving the quality of a medicine, or making a certain essential good cheaper for consumers.

(GSU)

 

All of this has led me to wonder how chemists and economists would function when working in the other field. Would they be able to apply the skills they’ve gained while studying the other subject to the new one with only a basic understanding, or would their general skills not be able to make up for their lack of knowledge.

 

While the validity of my current opinions on the similarities between chemistry and economics may be limited by my lack of understanding of the aforementioned subjects, I still believe that even though the concepts and ideas covered may be very different, deep down both are essentially just people trying to understand how the world works, and how they can make an impact.

 

 

 

 

 

Credits:

GSU. “Organic/Medicinal Chemistry.” Organic/Medicinal Chemistry. Georgia State University, n.d. Web.

Kwat, Natasha. “Joint Demand and Supply (With Diagram).” Economics Discussion. N.p., 02 Mar. 2016. Web.

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2 comments

  1. The difference between having skills and having knowledge is an interesting one. It makes me wonder whether it’s more important to have one or the other and how quickly a chemist could transition to being an economist. I wonder if it is easier to go one way than the other….? Importantly both use the same mental models to solve problems 🙂

  2. Albert, it is great to see you making these connections between Chem and Econs. This is something you could think about when you come to your EE. There are some great World Studies EE’s that can be investigated between these two subjects.

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