Atomic and Subatomic: Understanding Chemistry Vocabulary

Automatically transcribed from the original recording. Small transcription errors may remain.

Comprehending electronics, physics, or chemistry can be easy, but sadly many of our school systems don't have the best methods for teaching us these concepts, leaving most of us to feel completely overwhelmed. For instance, the word atomic. That might give you a few flashback nightmares to chemistry class in high school, but it's really simple if you think about it. It just means anything that consists of atoms, hence the name atom-ic, atomic. Subatomic refers to things that are smaller than an atom, such as protons, neutrons, and electrons. The atomic weight refers to the weighted average of an element, like iron or oxygen, just like us when we step on a scale. So it's this whole entire notion of getting over the fear of being overwhelmed with education. And sadly, in an educational system where science, technology, engineering, literacy, and math are taught with rote methodology, referring to a memorization technique in which information is memorized verbatim. Without a deeper understanding of the material, many of us are doomed for failure because it's a lousy way to help us see the entire picture of the educational material we are learning and connect the dots to make sense from the simplest concepts to the most complex. So I think a great example of this practice is with our English classes in public schools. The English language has a rich Latin vocabulary, where each syllable has a unique meaning and rich history. An example of this is the word technology, which, when broken down, techno can find its origins in Latinized Greek, meaning a systematic treatment of an art, craft, or technique. Tech can date back even further from the mother of all languages, Proto-Indo-European, from text meaning to weave or fabricate, hence the word textiles. Logi comes from a word-forming element, meaning speaking, doctrine, theory, or science, breaking down further to medieval Latin, log, meaning to speak or tell, hence logging your hours at a job or the captain's log you hear on Star Trek. Most of our vocabulary is like this, where each syllable is a Lego piece with its own unique meaning and story. Now imagine that you learned this method in grade school rather than just learning the simple definition and how to spell the entire word letter by letter. In our Lego method, you could easily hear a word you had never heard before, and chances are you would know how to spell it and understand what it means. So if you're ever feeling overwhelmed with a subject, try drilling down to its most basic concepts until you start connecting dots and get to that aha moment. And then you can begin to build up from there.