Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Why is a process (or recipe) called that, and not a formula?
More exactly...Why is a Chemical Process called that...and not a Formula? Or is there a better word for a description of a particular chemical process, such as the creation of ethanol? (listing ingredients, conditions and chemical equations).
This was supposed to be in the Physical Sciences category.
2 Answers
- Karen LLv 76 years ago
English has more than one word for many things, and the word recipe has come to mean "the list of ingredients and the instructions to make food". It can also mean the same for other things. If you are making soap, you use a recipe. If you are making play dough, you use a recipe. You may go ahead and say that you use a formula to make food if you like that word better, and part of the definition of "recipe" includes the word formula, but most people will wonder what you mean and you might find yourself explaining a lot..
- 6 years ago
In common parlance, the directions for producing a chemical substance comprise a formula. Yet, scientists and chemical engineers--in recent years--use that word for the notation for a chemial substance, and apparenlty use the word "process" for the directions for manufacturing the given substance, but I have no exact answer as to why this is so. BTW, I was the one asking this question, so I am mystified about YahooAnswers asking ME for an answer to my own question.