Analytical chemistry

Analytical chemistry is like being a detective for chemicals. You know how sometimes things have ingredients listed on them? Like your favorite cereal, it might say it has whole grains, sugar, and some vitamins in it. Well, someone had to figure out how to find out what's in your cereal, and that's what analytical chemists do.

They use different tools and techniques to figure out what's in things. One way they do this is by using a machine called a spectrometer, which can tell you what different colors of light are absorbed by different substances. Another way is by using a mass spectrometer, which tells you how heavy different atoms or molecules are.

Analytical chemists can also figure out how much of different substances there are in something. For example, they might test the water in a lake to see how much pollution is in it, or they might test your blood to see if you have any drugs or toxins in your system.

Overall, analytical chemistry is all about figuring out what things are made of and how much of those things there are. It's like being a scientific detective!