Why are plastics called polymers?

Answer 1

Glass and polymers differ in chemical content and structure. And that means their properties will vary. Glass is generally pretty rigid stuff while polymer plastics have a range of toughness. The thumbnail sketch of the chemistry of polymer plastics is that they are mostly molecular chains ranging in size from big to really big. They are constructed from linked monomers, with a basic link repeating and repeating. And as complex as are the shapes of the molecules, the way a large group of them behaves brings both variety and usefulness to polymer plastics. Plastics tend to be, well, plastic, meaning that they can be bent and twisted and such. Plastics is a big field. Really big. Plastic polymers have been around for about a hundred years, and it'd take a week to count the numbers of "flavors" of the stuff 'cause there are so many. It's a safe bet that none of us is living without polymer plastics. Glass, on the other hand is mostly silica, or, if you like, silicon dioxide. Think sand. It's simple, straightforward and has been known for centuries. Yes, there are some types of glass that are not silicated, but almost all of the stuff we commonly encounter is "regular" glass. It's amorphous structure makes it more brittle than most plastics, and we're all pretty familiar with the properties of glass. Lastly, polymer plastics were covered here to compare them to glass. Polymers are a larger group of things than just plastics (which is large in and of itself). The polymers include tons of biochemical stuff like proteins and DNA. Glass is simple SiO2 or fused sand. Hit the links and check things out over at Wikipedia. Just reading the first paragraph or two of each article should pretty much lock it in.

Answer 2

Prisms are typically made out of glass, but can be made from any material that is transparent to the wavelengths for which they are designed. They can be made from a polymeric material. You can make a prism out of any number of materials, including some polymers. Usually prisms are made out of glass, but some are plastic or polymers. Using plastic will make them both lighter and less susceptible to breaking than glass ones. See the Web Links to the left of this answer for more about prisms.

Answer 3

Polymers are long chain molecules made up of repeating units of the same type. Although thermoplastics are an example of a polymer there are others such as rubber, amber and proteins. See Wikipedia link below for lots more information on polymers.

Answer 4

yes they are.

Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce costs. Monomers of Plastic are either natural or synthetic organic compounds.

Answer 5

Metals are magnetic, most plastics are not. Metals are stuff that is dug up from the ground and processed only until the metal is separated from everything else, Plastics are highly processed range of stuff that is made from Oil products. If metals are recycled then they will stay metal, if plastics can be recycled then they can become a wide range of things

Answer 6

Essentially, a polymer is any substance whose molecules are made from very large numbers of identical repeating units. "Plastic" is a generic term often used to describe polymers that have "plastic" properties (i.e. they are able to be moulded, shaped or formed relatively easily).

Answer 7

Plastic is a classification of polymers ..all plastics are polymers bot all polymers are not plastics ex rubber ("polymer).

Answer 8

metal are cool polymers are not

Polymers are plastics.

Answer 9

Plastics are manmade, so they don't have carbon compounds like polysaccharides, but they are both polymers.