Transdisciplinary Animation

My second discipline for this project is Chemistry; chemical reactions in particular. I've been doing research about the different processes involved in chemical reactions. I'm mainly looking at the processes involved in chemical reactions.

There are 4 basic types of chemical reactions. These are synthesis, decomposition, displacement and redox.

Synthesis
- Or also known as combination reactions. Two reactants combine to form a new product. The reactants can be either elements or compounds. When two different elements combine, they form a compound. Two or more compounds can combine to form a new single compound. Bond forming is an exothermic reaction. Forming bonds takes less energy than breaking them, therefore energy is released making bond forming an exothermic reaction.

eg. A+B --> AB

Decomposition
- A compound breaks down into its component elements. A catalyst is needed in order to break the chemical bonds. Energy is absorbed when bonds break. Breaking bonds is an endothermic process. Energy is needed to break the chemical bonds holding together the component elements of the compound. Electrolysis is a method of decomposition that involves using electricity as a catalyst. Thermal decomposition involves using heat.

eg. AB --> A+B

Displacement
- There are two types of displacement reaction, single and double displacement reactions. In single displacement reactions, an element or compound is displaced and replaced by another element or compound in the single compound.  The reactivity of the elements involved determine the outcome.

eg. AB+C --> AC+B

In double displacement reactions, the elements are swapped with each other. Precipitates are often the results of this reaction.

eg. AB+CD --> AC+BD

Redox Reaction
- Reduction-Oxidation. This type of reaction involves the transfer of electrons. Oxidation is the loss of electrons while Reduction is the gain of electrons. These two take place simultaneously as one loses an electron, the other one gains it. Hence electron transfer.

Just doing this research has already given me a lot of ideas. I think that my idea is going along the lines of synthesis. Since I'm combining genres, a genre can be an element and when two or more genres combine, the resulting amalgamation will be a compound. Or maybe two genres can react like a redox reaction as a character(electron) is transferred, resulting into the character experiencing a new feeling/situation.

One thing that popped into my mind while doing this research is looking into the bonds formed in chemical reactions. Maybe two genres interlock like a covalent bond resulting into them sharing a story element kinda like a venn diagram. I'll look further into this research.

References

http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/chemistry/chapter6section7.rhtml
http://www.shmoop.com/chemical-reactions/topics.html
Level 2 Chemistry Learning Workbook - Alex Eames and Dorothy Kane Published by ESA