this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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High school chemistry felt less like imperfect modeling and more like alchemy that sometimes yields tangible results. I can't remember specifics anymore but there were many moments where I was like "you're using too many shortcuts and this doesn't make any damn sense mathematically or dimensionally anymore". I know real chemistry is too complex to fit a high school program, but the way it was taught really was like a soft science cosplaying as a hard science.
Also chemists would use any pressure units before they used Pa. mmHg as a unit suffers from congenital defects I can only assume stem from repeated inbreeding.