How to Spot Five Chemical Reactions in Everyday Life

More than five chemical reactions in everyday life happen to you in a single day, although it might seem farfetched. Did you take science in school? Sitting in a classroom, listening to your teacher, science might have seemed like the furthest thing away from you. How will you use science in your everyday life?

Chemical reactions are an aspect of science that occurs naturally around you in your everyday life. Walking in nature, cleaning your home, or even eating food means you are witnessing chemical reactions. Hundreds of chemical reactions take place around and inside of you every day, so much so that you probably do not even notice them anymore. When you boil water for a spaghetti dinner, you are witnessing a chemical reaction. After using your phone, you might plug it into a wall charger, not realizing that a chemical reaction is taking place in order for your battery to charge back to 100% capacity.

In this article, you will learn more about chemical reactions including a few common ones you see in your everyday life.

What is a Chemical Reaction?

In order to recognize chemical reactions in everyday life, you have to know how to spot them. A chemical reaction occurs when a set of chemical substances react with another set of chemical substances, leading to their conversion into a different form. These sets of substances are called reactants. The final, new substances formed are called products. Chemical reactions can occur with or without energy.

Many things change form, but that does not mean a chemical reaction has occurred. For example, ice melting back into water is a change in state from solid to liquid, but it is not a chemical reaction. In order to know if you are witnessing a chemical reaction, look for these telltale signs:

Change in temperature

Sudden change in odor

Production of gas (bubbling)

Formation of a solid when liquids are combined

Change in color

If you see more than one sign happening at the same time, it is very likely you are witnessing a chemical reaction.

Five Chemical Reactions in Everyday Life

Hundreds of chemical reactions happen every day in normal life. The following are five chemical reactions in everyday life you have probably experienced, maybe even all in one day!

Photosynthesis

Take a walk outside. Notice the green grass, green stems of flowers, and green leaves on bushes? The process by which plants create their own food is called photosynthesis. Chlorophyll in plant cells harvests energy from sunlight, then changes it into glucose which it uses as fuel to keep growing. This amazing process happens every day right outside your window!

Food Digestion

Imagine sitting down to a delicious meal of your favorite foods. After taking a bite, chewing, and swallowing, that food enters your stomach. Acids and enzymes in your stomach break the food down into a usable form that is used to fuel your body. This complex process of food digestion is a chemical reaction.

Baking a Cake

Think about your last birthday. Did you buy or make a birthday cake? Combining flour, egg, sugar, baking powder, flavorings, oil, etc. in a bowl is an example of a mixture, but what happens in the oven is a chemical reaction. Those ingredients combined with heat undergo a chemical change to create an entirely new product: delicious, fluffy cake!

Burning of Natural Gas

On cold nights, you might light a fire in a gas fireplace, or you might begin cooking dinner by lighting a burner on a gas stovetop. The burning of natural gas such as this is a common chemical reaction. Natural gas, which is a mixture of several compounds like methane, produces water, heat, and carbon dioxide when it is burned in the presence of oxygen.

Spot More Chemical Reactions in Everyday Life

Now that you know at least five chemical reactions in everyday life, can you spot more? These fundamental changes that create new products are essential to life in many ways. Look around you in nature. Do you see changes occurring that include changes in color, temperature, or odor? You might be seeing a chemical reaction! The next time you cook a delicious meal, consider how your ingredients combine to turn into a new finished product. You might be cooking with science!