• Question: Why is Science split into 3 parts (physics, chemistry and biology) when we all of them already, in normal day life, in science? Why choose 1 when you can do it all ?

    Asked by shadeta to Ed, Hayley, Jason, Nathan, Sophie on 13 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Edward Bovill

      Edward Bovill answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      I think that the reason we split science up into these parts at school are because each of the sciences deals with very different subjects.

      Physics deals with the fundamental properties of the universe and how it works – from the very, very big things like planets and gravity, to the everyday effects of throwing a ball to your friend to the very, very small things like atoms.

      Chemistry deals with how atoms join together to make molecules and all the chemicals and materials we take for granted every day.

      Biology makes use of chemistry to describe how life works.

      Each is important in it’s own right but after school you can easily combine them – biochemistry and biophysics are just two examples of joining two of the sciences together but there are many more combinations of the three that are subjects of study for someone, somewhere.

    • Photo: Hayley Evers-King

      Hayley Evers-King answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      I agree with you, I think it’s a bit silly to split science in to subjects this way! I work on the oceans and I can’t understand how they work without using physics, chemistry and biology all together! Perhaps at school it does make it a little easier to understand the basic concepts, but after this studying many parts of the way the world works requires you to have a good knowledge of all the sciences.

Comments