{"id":67,"date":"2012-07-18T14:55:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T14:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/?p=67"},"modified":"2014-02-21T03:22:47","modified_gmt":"2014-02-21T03:22:47","slug":"whats-the-difference-between-general-chemistry-and-organic-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/whats-the-difference-between-general-chemistry-and-organic-chemistry\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s the difference between General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We get asked this question often. Students who would like to enter health fields will invariably take both of these courses. While General Chemistry is taught in high school, time dedicated to the &#8220;organic chemistry&#8221; field is usually brief and often not mentioned at all. So why is it that you spend two entire semesters studying both!?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Big Picture:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">General Chemistry:<\/span><\/strong> the study inorganic compounds (in general those without carbon)<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #339966;\">Organic Chemistry: <\/span><\/strong>the study of organic compounds (in general those with carbon)<\/p>\n<p>In general, many university level <strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">general chemistry<\/span> <\/strong>courses will cover the following topics over the span of two semesters:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>atomic structure<\/li>\n<li>the periodic table of elements<\/li>\n<li>bonding<\/li>\n<li>study of compounds, moles and molar mass<\/li>\n<li>stoichiometry<\/li>\n<li>kinetics, thermodynamics and equilibrium<\/li>\n<li>ideal gas law<\/li>\n<li>chemical phases: solid, liquid, gas<\/li>\n<li>molarity and molality<\/li>\n<li>redox reactions<\/li>\n<li>acid &#8211; base chemistry<\/li>\n<li>nuclear chemistry<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By studying these areas within general chemistry you learn to understand and appreciate \u00a0ionic compounds, salts and minerals. You also can gain an appreciation for some of the theory and applications in <em>industry<\/em> and <em>technology<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So what about <span style=\"color: #333333;\">organic chemistry<\/span>? Why spend an entire year learning about <strong>carbon<\/strong>?!?<\/p>\n<p>Carbon containing compounds are the gateway to life.<\/p>\n<p>In general, many university level <span style=\"color: #339966;\"><strong>organic chemistry<\/strong><\/span> courses will cover the following topics over the span of two semesters:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>atomic structure, nomenclature and resonance<\/li>\n<li>structural formulas, hybridization and molecular shapes<\/li>\n<li>stereochemistry<\/li>\n<li>structure and conformation of alkanes<\/li>\n<li>alkyl halides<\/li>\n<li>nucleophilic substitution<\/li>\n<li>elimination<\/li>\n<li>alkanes<\/li>\n<li>alkenes<\/li>\n<li>alkynes<\/li>\n<li>alcohols<\/li>\n<li>gringard reagents<\/li>\n<li>ethers<\/li>\n<li>epoxides<\/li>\n<li>conjugated systems<\/li>\n<li>aromatic compounds<\/li>\n<li>aldehydes,\u00a0ketones and amines<\/li>\n<li>carboxylic acids and their derivatives<\/li>\n<li>amino acids,\u00a0proteins and\u00a0carbohydrates<\/li>\n<li>laboratory methods such as spectroscopy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By studying these areas within organic chemistry one can have an appreciation for <em>living<\/em> <em>organisms<\/em> and the basis for life. One can also gain an understanding for organic chemistry contributions to <em>health<\/em>, <em>medicine<\/em> and <em>pharmacology<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We get asked this question often. Students who would like to enter health fields will invariably take both of these courses. While General Chemistry is taught in high school, time dedicated to the &#8220;organic chemistry&#8221; field is usually brief and often not mentioned at all. So why is it that you spend two entire semesters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organic-chemistry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}