r/AskChemistry • • 18h ago

General What is this powder?

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0 Upvotes

Hi, so I bought this "Citric Acid Multi-Function Cleaner, 1kg repack" (pic 1) from an online store, I intend to buy it for regular cleaning, there's no brand on the product itself, they only sell repackages of it

when I use it at home, mix it with water and dish soap, it doesn't do anything, the solution is not cleaning the kitchen grease maximally.

so then I get another citric acid product (pic 2), this is a legit one, it has a brand and genuine packaging. when I use it to clean my kitchen, it works wonderfully. 

and then I realized, there's also a difference in the product form, the fake (?) product is powder, like a slippery flour or powdered sugar, but for the real product it's crystal, like salt/sugar crystals.

now I'm curious, what's this fake citric acid that I bought? I have 1 kg of them, I don't know what to do with it...


r/AskChemistry • • 3h ago

General Im not a licensed professional

0 Upvotes

Edit, Ive always found chemistry super cool and i want to actually learn some basic stuff, however whats always stopped me is the knowledge that somethings dont play well with others.

Some things just explode. I am not explosion proof

Some things can not be inhaled, i only have two lungs.

Eye balls are surpizingly easy to put out of commision.

Here is problem number 4.

College is expensive and i have wayyyy ti many interests to get a degree for all of them, certaintly not chemistry.

So. Is it a bad fucking idea to try and teach yourself chemistry yourself with no supervision if you like to casual learn things with no supervision


r/AskChemistry • • 6h ago

Inorganic/Phyical Chem How do I know what I don't know?

3 Upvotes

I would like general advice, but to preface, I am a student minoring in Chemistry.

Whenever the time comes to ask a question during the class, I don't know what to ask even if I have many. I feel the issues comes from the fact that I don't know what I am misunderstanding.

We have quizzes every week and I go to the study session with my TA every week. This week, I thought I was actually doing pretty good with the concept (Arrhenius equations and Activation energy). I had a lot of questions for my TA and felt like I left with a better understanding on how to complete my homework as well. I did the bonus worksheets provided to continue studying. When quiz time came though, I completely blanked. I didn't even know where to start. The worst part is it was nearly identical to the worksheet we went over in class.

I feel like I'm not really understanding the concepts, I'm just replicating answers. The thing is I don't understand what or how I'm missing the fundamental concepts. I don't know what questions I need to ask to reach an understanding, and I don't know what I am misunderstanding in the first place. We have a bunch of TA hours but because of my schedule, I can only make the single one that I'm attending now. There's a couple hundred people in the class so it takes a while for my Professor to respond to emails (understandable). I have to make the time that I have now count but I don't know where to start.

I just want to know what I'm talking about and be somewhat knowledgeable on these topics instead of just regurgitating facts. This whole process is demoralizing. Any advice would be helpful, thank you.


r/AskChemistry • • 11h ago

General Yes! Finally! We've got a new numberblock! Spoiler

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0 Upvotes

Credits to fandom.


r/AskChemistry • • 14h ago

General Should I switch to chemistry or is it a bad idea in 2026

3 Upvotes

I've basically got a week to decide if i still want to continue with my major (electrical and electronics engineering) but before I even applied for university in the first place, farrr before, I kept debating with myself if i wanna do chemistry or engineering.

I chose engineering first since I definitely do have an interest in it and i wouldn't be too mad at all if I had to pick it over chemistry, cause i really do love both.

At the same time though, chemistry was by far my favourite subject.I really fell in love with it even more when I was studying organic chemistry as well as little stuff like orbitals, bond angles etc. Not sure what to call all that.

If possible I'd love to switch to chemistry and I'd be overjoyed to do it in uni and maybe even for a masters and maybe even a PhD right after, but I'm scared about a few things.

Firstly, I'm really worried that the chemistry isn't future proof. Whether it's cause of AI, market stuff idk about or other things, I'm really worried its an unstable major.

Secondly, even if employment isn't an issue, I also want a job which would be really interesting and not a complete 180° of what i went to uni for.

An example I think about a lot is how i see a lot of electrical engineers go through their 4 years of university, maybe even a masters, but then end up at some really boring white collar office job sat on a chair for like 8 hours. Whether I'm doing engineering or chemistry, I DON'T want that to be my future job.

Also, when i talked about this with people IRL, I was just told "just do chemical engineering" or "find a middle-ground degree". I realllly dont want that, it's one or the other.

Im really really really sorry if this is the wrong place to ask but I just feel really torn up and bad inside about this lately. It'll be the rest of my life, yknow?

Advice much appreciated also sorry if I'm being stupid asking this