Best general chemistry books according to redditors
We found 286 Reddit comments discussing the best general chemistry books. We ranked the 160 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
8. Symmetry: An Introduction to Group Theory and Its Applications (Dover Books on Physics)
4 mentions
Here are all 4 books for less than $170 total
You are in college, be a smart consumer.
Last time this was posted someone pointed out that all these books could be purchased for significantly less than $1000.
https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Chemical-Reaction-Engineering-4th/dp/0130473944
https://www.amazon.com/Physical-Chemistry-9th-Peter-Atkins/dp/1429218126
https://www.amazon.com/Separation-Process-Principles-Applications-Simulators/dp/0470481838
https://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Steven-S-Zumdahl/dp/061852844X
I have always enjoyed Isaac Asimov's non-fiction. He wrote numerous history books, including the excellent
Asimov's Chronology of the World: The History of the World From the Big Bang to Modern Times.
The Near East: 10,000 Years of History
The Land of Canaan
The Egyptians
The Greeks: A Great Adventure
The Roman Republic
The Roman Empire
Constantinople: The Forgotten Empire
The Shaping of England
The Shaping of France
The Dark Ages
Christopher Columbus: Navigator to the New World
Ferdinand Magellan: Opening the Door to World Exploration
The Shaping of North America
The Birth of the United States
Asimov also wrote excellent histories of science and mathematics:
Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery
A Short History of Biology
A Short History of Chemistry
Most of Asimov's non-fiction was aimed at the masses (as was Sagan's Cosmos), so they tend not to go into great depth. However he was excellent at showing how an event or discovery would have direct or indirect impact on a future event or discovery (standing on the shoulders of giants and all that). Most of these were written in the 1960's and 1970's
If you move the decimal over. This is about 1,000 in books...
(If I had to pick a few for 100 bucks: encyclopedia of country living, survival medicine, wilderness medicine, ball preservation, art of fermentation, a few mushroom and foraging books.)
Medical:
Where there is no doctor
Where there is no dentist
Emergency War Surgery
The survival medicine handbook
Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine
Special Operations Medical Handbook
Food Production
Mini Farming
encyclopedia of country living
square foot gardening
Seed Saving
Storey’s Raising Rabbits
Meat Rabbits
Aquaponics Gardening: Step By Step
Storey’s Chicken Book
Storey Dairy Goat
Storey Meat Goat
Storey Ducks
Storey’s Bees
Beekeepers Bible
bio-integrated farm
soil and water engineering
Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
Food Preservation and Cooking
Steve Rinella’s Large Game Processing
Steve Rinella’s Small Game
Ball Home Preservation
Charcuterie
Root Cellaring
Art of Natural Cheesemaking
Mastering Artesian Cheese Making
American Farmstead Cheesemaking
Joe Beef: Surviving Apocalypse
Wild Fermentation
Art of Fermentation
Nose to Tail
Artisan Sourdough
Designing Great Beers
The Joy of Home Distilling
Foraging
Southeast Foraging
Boletes
Mushrooms of Carolinas
Mushrooms of Southeastern United States
Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast
Tech
farm and workshop Welding
ultimate guide: plumbing
ultimate guide: wiring
ultimate guide: home repair
off grid solar
Woodworking
Timberframe Construction
Basic Lathework
How to Run A Lathe
Backyard Foundry
Sand Casting
Practical Casting
The Complete Metalsmith
Gears and Cutting Gears
Hardening Tempering and Heat Treatment
Machinery’s Handbook
How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic
Electronics For Inventors
Basic Science
Chemistry
Organic Chem
Understanding Basic Chemistry Through Problem Solving
Ham Radio
AARL Antenna Book
General Class Manual
Tech Class Manual
MISC
Ray Mears Essential Bushcraft
Contact!
Nuclear War Survival Skills
The Knowledge: How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm
My main hobby is reading textbooks, so I decided to go beyond the scope of the question posed. I took a look at what I have on my shelves in order to recommend particularly good or standard books that I think could characterize large portions of an undergraduate degree and perhaps the beginnings of a graduate degree in the main fields that interest me, plus some personal favorites.
Neuroscience: Theoretical Neuroscience is a good book for the field of that name, though it does require background knowledge in neuroscience (for which, as others mentioned, Kandel's text is excellent, not to mention that it alone can cover the majority of an undergraduate degree in neuroscience if corequisite classes such as biology and chemistry are momentarily ignored) and in differential equations. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology were used in my classes on cognition and learning/memory and I enjoyed both; though they tend to choose breadth over depth, all references are research papers and thus one can easily choose to go more in depth in any relevant topics by consulting these books' bibliographies.
General chemistry, organic chemistry/synthesis: I liked Linus Pauling's General Chemistry more than whatever my school gave us for general chemistry. I liked this undergraduate organic chemistry book, though I should say that I have little exposure to other organic chemistry books, and I found Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis to be very informative and useful. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take instrumental/analytical/inorganic/physical chemistry and so have no idea what to recommend there.
Biochemistry: Lehninger is the standard text, though it's rather expensive. I have limited exposure here.
Mathematics: When I was younger (i.e. before having learned calculus), I found the four-volume The World of Mathematics great for introducing me to a lot of new concepts and branches of mathematics and for inspiring interest; I would strongly recommend this collection to anyone interested in mathematics and especially to people considering choosing to major in math as an undergrad. I found the trio of Spivak's Calculus (which Amazon says is now unfortunately out of print), Stewart's Calculus (standard text), and Kline's Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach to be a good combination of rigor, practical application, and physical intuition, respectively, for calculus. My school used Marsden and Hoffman's Elementary Classical Analysis for introductory analysis (which is the field that develops and proves the calculus taught in high school), but I liked Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis (nicknamed "Baby Rudin") better. I haven't worked my way though Munkres' Topology yet, but it's great so far and is often recommended as a standard beginning toplogy text. I haven't found books on differential equations or on linear algebra that I've really liked. I randomly came across Quine's Set Theory and its Logic, which I thought was an excellent introduction to set theory. Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica is a very famous text, but I haven't gotten hold of a copy yet. Lang's Algebra is an excellent abstract algebra textbook, though it's rather sophisticated and I've gotten through only a small portion of it as I don't plan on getting a PhD in that subject.
Computer Science: For artificial intelligence and related areas, Russell and Norvig's Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach's text is a standard and good text, and I also liked Introduction to Information Retrieval (which is available online by chapter and entirely). For processor design, I found Computer Organization and Design to be a good introduction. I don't have any recommendations for specific programming languages as I find self-teaching to be most important there, nor do I know of any data structures books that I found to be memorable (not that I've really looked, given the wealth of information online). Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming is considered to be a gold standard text for algorithms, but I haven't secured a copy yet.
Physics: For basic undergraduate physics (mechanics, e&m, and a smattering of other subjects), I liked Fundamentals of Physics. I liked Rindler's Essential Relativity and Messiah's Quantum Mechanics much better than whatever books my school used. I appreciated the exposition and style of Rindler's text. I understand that some of the later chapters of Messiah's text are now obsolete, but the rest of the book is good enough for you to not need to reference many other books. I have little exposure to books on other areas of physics and am sure that there are many others in this subreddit that can give excellent recommendations.
Other: I liked Early Theories of the Universe to be good light historical reading. I also think that everyone should read Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
/u/another_user_name posted this list a while back. Actual aerospace textbooks are towards the bottom but you'll need a working knowledge of the prereqs first.
Non-core/Pre-reqs:
Mathematics:
Calculus.
1-4) Calculus, Stewart -- This is a very common book and I felt it was ok, but there's mixed opinions about it. Try to get a cheap, used copy.
1-4) Calculus, A New Horizon, Anton -- This is highly valued by many people, but I haven't read it.
1-4) Essential Calculus With Applications, Silverman -- Dover book.
More discussion in this reddit thread.
Linear Algebra
3) Linear Algebra and Its Applications,Lay -- I had this one in school. I think it was decent.
3) Linear Algebra, Shilov -- Dover book.
Differential Equations
4) An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations, Coddington -- Dover book, highly reviewed on Amazon.
G) Partial Differential Equations, Evans
G) Partial Differential Equations For Scientists and Engineers, Farlow
More discussion here.
Numerical Analysis
5) Numerical Analysis, Burden and Faires
Chemistry:
Physics:
2-4) Physics, Cutnel -- This was highly recommended, but I've not read it.
Programming:
Introductory Programming
Programming is becoming unavoidable as an engineering skill. I think Python is a strong introductory language that's got a lot of uses in industry.
Core Curriculum:
Introduction:
Aerodynamics:
Thermodynamics, Heat transfer and Propulsion:
Flight Mechanics, Stability and Control
5+) Flight Stability and Automatic Control, Nelson
5+)[Performance, Stability, Dynamics, and Control of Airplanes, Second Edition](http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Stability-Dynamics-Airplanes-Education/dp/1563475839/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315534435&sr=8-1, Pamadi) -- I gather this is better than Nelson
Engineering Mechanics and Structures:
3-4) Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Hibbeler
6-8) Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, Bruhn -- A good reference, never really used it as a text.
G) Introduction to the Mechanics of a Continuous Medium, Malvern
G) Fracture Mechanics, Anderson
G) Mechanics of Composite Materials, Jones
Electrical Engineering
Design and Optimization
Space Systems
For pleasure:
Undergraduate
Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, The art of writing reasonable organic reaction mechanisms
Graduate
I took a grad course on the history of chemistry and we used The Development of Modern Chemistry by Ihde.
Another comprehensive (but style-wise a little hard to read) is
Crucibles:The Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission.
I have yet to read The Disappearing Spoon, a pop-sci read on the history and stories behind discoveries of elements.
I took an undergraduate class called "History and Philosophy of Science (Chemistry)", but that involved multiple books.
I'd recommend you start with a popular science novel such as Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History.
The Chemical Tree by Bock and The History of Chemistry by John Hudson are more academic history texts of the development of chemistry. To read and understand these books you probably need to be a chemist yourself. They are more targeted towards teaching a class.
Why 4? That should be your first question when you consider the work load. Especially with bio one (if not the) most demanding content based course. If you're struggling with chemistrys math, then this book was useful for the majority of my class.
There's also this research text, titled Kratom and Other Mitragynines: The Chemistry and Pharmacology of Opioids from a Non-Opium Source, of course.
I'd recommend Zumdahl's Chemistry (http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Steven-S-Zumdahl/dp/061852844X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409839212&sr=1-2&keywords=zumdahl) as a good introductory text. It's relatively straightforward for someone approaching the subject outside of class.
I'd ask you to remember also, Chemistry is a messy subject, it just isn't as concise as mathematics by nature. If the text isn't to your taste it is probably a reflection on the haphazard nature of the subject, not the author.
That said, if you want the original gangster, old school text, Pauling's Chemistry is the die that all modern chem texts have been cast from, and it's cheap, printed by Dover in their classic style (http://www.amazon.com/General-Chemistry-Dover-Books/dp/0486656225/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409839362&sr=1-1&keywords=pauling+chemistry)
Cavendish, when working with 'inflammable air' (H2), noted that it reacted similarly (and had similar density) despite being generated by different acids/metal combos.
Priestley identified O2 as 'dephlogistonated air'.
Marine acid air-HCl
Alkaline air-Ammonia
Fixed air-CO2
vitriolic acid air-SO2
They identified the gasses by what they did and how they were made; it's only retroactively do we see that they were working with discrete gasses.
So, simply, they didn't. They were at the stage then that we are now with particle physics. Just smash stuff together and hope the theory matches the experiment (or if you're a theorist, hope it doesn't). This is one of the major critiques of Priestley's work, that he ignored his own results to steadfastly advance the 'phlogiston' theory of everything.
'Development of Modern Chemistry' Aaron J. Idhe (Dover Press).
This is my favorite book on (well...) the development of modern chemistry, if you're interested in the subject, it's an easy read.
J.F. Cornwell, Group theory in physics: an introduction (link)
W. Ludwig, Symmetries in physics: group theory applied to physical problems(link)
M. Tinkham, Group theory and quantum mechanics (link)
W.-K. Tung, Group theory in physics (link)
E.P. Wigner, Group theory and its applications to the quantum mechanics of atomic spectra (link1, link2)
N. Jeevanjee, An Introduction to Tensors and Group Theory for Physicists (link)
G. Costa, Symmetries and Group Theory in Particle Physics: An Introduction to Space-Time and Internal Symmetries (link)
B. Hall, Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, and Representations: An Elementary Introduction (link)
R. McWeeny, Symmetry: An Introduction to Group Theory and Its Applications (Dover Books on Physics)(link)
I bought 6 books at the book fair. I wish i could have gotten more, but i had to demonstrate some self control. haha. we got a Ninjago book, an angry birds star wars book, a cute book called Otis and one called Ten Little Caterpillars, but the two that I am most excited about are Exclamation Mark and The Elements.
PLUS! its a beautifully rainy spring day, so its perfect for reading!!
Hey there,
Congrats on your interest in chemistry! I’ll briefly answer your questions.
What books, websites(youtube channels included), or magazines would you guys recommend?
If you have a Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/ACSReactions/
https://m.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos
The American Chemical Society (ACS) has some cool stuff. Check them out. They recommend magazines on their site.
I own tons of chemistry books and I recommend you just read what interests you honestly. The chemistry world is pretty big...I can recommend a book for you to pick up for college though! See below! I guarantee you will love it. It will aid you as you go through your degree, whether you decided on the chemistry or chemical engineer route.
How could I prepare for getting a degree in chem?
https://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Maths-Book-Erich-Steiner/dp/0199205353
I wish I had this book during my undergrad years. Work on your math skill. Your love of chemistry will take care of the rest. I believe the math is the biggest deterrent for most people.
What fields are there in chem besides organic and inorganic?
The main branches are: Physical, Inorganic, Organic, and Analytical. There are many subjects though that branch off the basics of the main branches though. Examples: Material chem, biological, photochem, catalysis, surface, environmental, gas, electrochemistry, nuclear, radiochem, and the list goes on...I hope this helps. I can answer more questions later. Good luck!
The 'Official' (Lister) textbooks for (AQA) A-Level chemistry are not the best, I find them riddled with errors.
PMT has the notes arranged by topic + collated exam questions (and mark schemes) for each one.
I've been using Jim Clark's book for 10 years to help kids (and lots of worked examples)
SciSheets (for £10/year) is amazing value, lots of notes, and thousands of questions and mark schemes, arranged by spec area.
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Something you haven't mentioned, but you may want to think about, is the practical endorsement. You have to complete 12 practical activities, at a registered centre, to get the endorsement. Not sure how it would work with you already having a degree and A-Levels (they had ISAs and EMPAs 6 years ago) but you may struggle without it.
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You can learn chemistry and switch examining boards, I've only taught AQA and Salters (a very long time ago). There are some variations in workings of definitions and specification points, so I would personally choose one and stick with it. Exams are largely all around the same date anyway.
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Good luck!
Edit: grammar
Weyl's symmetry is what you're looking for. The next step up from this would require some group theory, since mathematicians interested in symmetry usually study symmetry groups of objects or spaces. I have not read it but this book looks like a good next read, at least the first four(ish) chapters. Another possibility is Armstrong's book, though I'm not familiar with this book either.
I taught myself general chemistry in high school using Pauling's General Chemistry text. It's a whopping $11.52 on Amazon right now.
There is an electronic version on iTunes for $20, if your students would prefer that.
Yes it does BIND, holy shit, if you haven't read a scientific book/studies on it then why do you pretend to know what your talking about? It's common sense it binds as it's well-accepted that kratom is physically addictive (see BIND)
https://www.amazon.com/Kratom-Other-Mitragynines-Chemistry-Pharmacology/dp/1482225182
Don't be put off with the general chemistry concepts. While they can be interesting, I found chemistry extremely boring until I started learning organic chemistry. Try and mix in some of the early organic videos once you have a good feel for how atoms can come together to form molecules. There is a lot of general concepts to learn but they are important.
Also I hear that Linus Pauling's book is a good place to start if your not going the traditional way.
This book by Theodore Gray is super good. It is one of the books that sparked my interest in chemistry to begin with.
From which background are you asking this? Because from a chemistry point of view this seems like a silly question because the knowledge growths and changes each day.
From the perspective of an interested citizen with the goal of an broad education a single good general chemistry book like Zumdahl/Chemistry contains enough knowledge about chemistry for a lifetime.
If you want to build a doomsday proof bible of chemical knowledge or want to bolster your library as a scientist from another scientific branch like biology or physics you could alsocome quite close to capturing the most important knowledge. For this approach I would take the existing "bibles" for subtopics of chemistry like organic chemistry like Bruise/Organic Chemistry. I would at least take specific books from organic, inorganic, physical, analytical chemistry aswell as biochemistry. Most of these bibles have 1000+ pages so this "book" with 6000+ pages could maybe contain something like 50% of the knowledge about chemistry by todays standards.
> I doubt that a psychedelic experience would spark or fuel interest in science for most - more likely the arts, if they used before deciding on their career or path of study.
I often hear psychonauts giving lip service to the sciences, but seldom see them follow through on their proclaimed interest. For me, trying lsd really did reinvigorate my interest in science, most specifically chemistry. The first thing I took away from the experience was how apparent it became that everything I ingest has an effect on the chemistry of my body and subsequently my physical and mental experiences, even if by 2nd or 3rd order effects. I picked up a copy of Linus Pauling's General Chemistry as a starting point, then read How to Live Longer and Feel Better and have since greatly improved the efficacy of my diet in supporting a robust mind and body. In retrospect, revelations that I've had regarding how to feel and live better seem like they should have been obvious... but at times before I had really given things reasonable thought I recall being quite overwhelmed and confused. I suppose one could say that the strength of the acid experience snapped me out of living in the world of ideas and renewed my awareness of the interdependence of my subjective "inner world" and my interaction with the objective "outer world".
This is a great list but for mathematics, I would add sections on geometry somewhere before calculus and maybe also discrete math. Use the UCSMP Precalculus books for sets/logic, basic algebra, trigonometry, and discrete math. Alternatively, use Paul's Online Math Notes to learn everything you want about math.
If you can afford it, you'll benefit tremendously by trying to follow the Art of Problem Solving curriculum located under "Using AoPS as a Primary Curriculum". Start from prealgebra and work your way up from there. Use [Khan Academy] as mentioned previously (https://www.khanacademy.org) to supplement. Optional: Read Art of Problem Solving, Volumes 1 and 2. Only do this if you want to get really good at math
When you're ready to move on from math, you'll need the links to The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volumes I-III to complete your physics education. Try to find a copy of Schaum's Outline of Physics for Engineering and Science in a bookstore or read an old edition online. If you decided not to do calculus, use the Outlines of College Physics instead. Do as many problems as you can to truly solidify your physics knowledge. After doing physics, find a good chemistry textbook and read the entire thing. If you want to learn even more advanced chemistry, read this. The key to learning math and science is to do lot of problems.
I wrote this as a note to myself as well. But I hope it can help you too. If you can pirate textbooks, do it. Try to not move on to one science without being well established in the field listed before it. Good luck and feel free to PM me if you want to converse with someone who is trying to follow a similar path as the one listed here.
edit: typo
I just want to second "General Chemistry" by Linus Pauling that /u/kslusherplantman suggested. It's a very readable classic that will do a lot for your understanding. Also, it's like 15 euros: http://www.amazon.de/General-Chemistry-Dover-Books/dp/0486656225/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404581980&sr=8-1&keywords=general+chemistry+pauling
Personally I'm kinda ambivalent on the programming issue. It's useful to differing degrees depending on what you do. That said, unless you get into hardcore synthesis, it's probably going to come up at least a few times in a career. On the other hand, unless you get into computational chemistry, it's not going to come up all that much. If you really want to learn one to get ready, learn python. Most stuff you do will be data processing related outside of more serious computational work, and python should be more than up to any of those tasks. It's also generally marketable if you decide to study something else and easy enough to learn that you won't waste too much time if you don't end up ever using it.
Other than that? Just relax. Graduating from German secondary school (Gymnasium?) you're probably fine mathematically. The rest of it will come as you take your classes. It's great that you're enthusiastic, but right now you probably want to focus on the non-academic changes in your life so that you don't get overwhelmed on that front when school starts.
This is one of my favorite books. I have a bookshelf hard cover copy, and a carry around soft cover copy. Nobody escapes looking at it when I'm out and about.
Following-up on the blog/book suggestion, if you don't have examples in mind, here is one from a medicinal chemist, Derek Lowe. His blog, and his book. (I don't know the guy personally). It's not quite wetlands... but you might find it interesting nonetheless.
barron's review book is good, it's also the only one I have ever used so I can't actually give a fair comparison to others.
Zumdahl & Zumdahl is a very excellent textbook (not review book). I borrowed this textbook off my Chem H teacher and read it over the weekend before the test and got a 5 (didn't take the ap chem class). It can probably be used as an alternate to a review book
On the contrary. You can buy Chemistry.
This book is a good introduction to group theory and representations. It specifically has sections devoted to crystallographic groups.
https://smile.amazon.com/Chemical-Tree-History-Chemistry-Science/dp/0393320685?sa-no-redirect=1
Your best and safest bet is always buying a textbook and it's solution manual and just go through the book and do the problems
I recommend chemistry by zumdahl, it's a bit expensive but you can always rent and and pay a lot less
Book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1133611095/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1407886305&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40
Solutions: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1133611990/ref=pd_aw_sims_1?pi=SL500_SY115&simLd=1
You might be able to find cheaper solutions manual, you just have to look around
Also this book I recommended is slightly higher than a level you asked for but you will definitely master high school level chem plus a lot more interesting stuff through this book
There's a professor at Temple Univerity in Philadelphia who wrote what is considered the first extensive text on Kratom as an "opioid from a non-opioid source" it's on Amazon here if you want to check it out, it seems pretty expensive though:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1482225182/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/192-5010898-7834929#
I've been meaning to read it myself, it's also the same guy that helped synthesize Tramadol.
I really like the the term "opioid from a non-opioid source" for some reason, lol.
Just pick up an older edition of a well-reviewed genchem text. For example, the sub suggests the seventh edition of Principles of Modern Chemistry, available for under $40, but the sixth is available for is little as $5. If you want something free and easy, I believe khanacademy usually gets reviewed pretty well, although I prefer find it to be too slow, especially for review.
I'd recommend finding yourself two nice textbooks, and working through one methodically while referencing the second during times when the first doesn’t sufficiently explain things. Also, when studying the text, I would recommend solving as many of the “in-chapter” and “end of chapter” problems as you possibly can. You’ll be far more likely to understand the material if you have to apply the requisite knowledge, and it’s pretty established that long term recall will be enhanced by application of material (see the testing effect if curious--Roeidger and Karpicke’s studies were well done).
In fact, regardless of how you are initially presented with the material (be it Khan lectures, textbooks, guides online, people’s answers to your questions, etc.), the bulk of your understanding will likely come from working out problems yourself. This effect can not be overstated, and regardless of how you decide to engage the material, I cannot stress the importance of applying the material.
Assuming you follow the textbook plan, if you find a concept or problem that you just cannot comprehend, look to online resources for aid. Some examples include Khan Academy, MIT Open Courses, and of course, r/chemhelp or r/homeworkhelp.
If you absolutely need some direction and find that a textbook isn’t cutting it, then the MIT series has a number of explicit instructions and lectures to steer you along. If you can catch them when they’re available, Coursera has some courses as well, with actual feedback systems that would likely prove useful.
For book recommendations, I’d check out this thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/1xzi9t/general_chemistry_book_recommendations/ There seems to be a good discussion there with lots of options. I personally used Chemistry: the Central Science, but it’s worth mentioning that the math used is pretty low level and isn’t representative of further chemistry study. Still, the concepts are explained fairly well. A note: textbooks can be found for much, much cheaper than is initially seen on listings. Used copies of older textbooks often go for almost nothing. You can even sometimes find PDFs of books, but the legality of that is questionable (even if they’re way easier to navigate and manipulate).
Still, your best course of action likely depends on your individual learning style, so take these suggestions with a grain of salt.
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Subject-Chemistry-Study-College/dp/145730919X
I don't believe he's made a book of his 'Things I won't work with,' which is a real shame, but he did put together a more serious Chemistry book aimed at teaching the history of the field to non chemists. I bought it after reading his blog posts, and I thought it was well worth a read. Not as focused on humor, but the same good writing.
I need any of these
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1523381531/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Study-Guide-Subject-Tests/dp/0874479754/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0874479754&pd_rd_r=TV55SY40GF9T9KGMMKKP&pd_rd_w=eHmSr&pd_rd_wg=GQ78g&psc=1&refRID=TV55SY40GF9T9KGMMKKP
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Subject-Chemistry-Study-College/dp/145730919X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523927942&sr=1-4&keywords=sat+chemistry+subject+test+2018
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Subject-Mathematics-Level-Study/dp/1457309327/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1457309327&pd_rd_r=Y2NY1QZJK7RGSWQYHDSS&pd_rd_w=zut0F&pd_rd_wg=xvkKB&psc=1&refRID=Y2NY1QZJK7RGSWQYHDSS&dpID=51BcC6Y2-XL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail
I used McWeeny in my graduate Group Theory course. Not sure if there's a pdf floating around, but you can get it for under $10. It was a rather good introduction. Another mentioned Dresselhaus, which I've heard good things from as well.
In 900 years of time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important
Here is a thing... about elements!. Elements hang out in space! xD
I once went stargazing with my now-fiance. There was a meteor shower and it was soooooo beautiful! I'd never seen that. I had a great time - and it paid off for both of us! I'm so glad i went :)
I'd like to say something fun, but it's probably this chemistry textbook.
I'm in my last class (a fun 4th year nutrition class) so I applied for graduation, and they are making me take another 100 level lab course because I have too many senior (200+) lab courses and not enough junior (100). I know, I know, it's so stupid, I couldn't believe it. I don't have a lot of cash, and I didn't expect to have to take another course, so I thought I could get away with using one of my old chem books but it's not working so well.
Covertly scope out their coffee table to make sure they don't have a copy of Theodore Gray's The Elements. If they don't, get him a copy, it's an entertaining yet beautiful and informative book.
If you want to be safer, get a copy of Gray's Molecules or Reactions because it's much less likely they'll have a copy and I presume they're nearly as good.
You need to develop your internal analytical tools as well as learn how to use computer tools to help speed any analysis you take on.
Start with Statistics for Dummies (don't be put off by the name as these books tend to be great for distilling information in an easy to read and concise manner).
Learn how to use software. Excel is the main workhorse for many businesses and other organizations. R is a free programming language which provides graphics and statistical analysis capabilities. Its steep learning curve is a hindrance to many people though. If you have an account with your university and if they have site licenses then you may be able to download software such as SAS, JMP, SPSS, etc. for free. Personally I load my data into an SQL based database and I use Tableau Software to do visualizations very quickly and easily. Tableau is prohibitively expensive for many people though.
Finally, find data that is interesting to you. Find data that you are naturally curious about. This will make it easier for you to come up with theses that you wish to prove.
Some other interesting reads:
http://edwardtufte.com
http://perceptualedge.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_analysis
About the math for chemists resource, there's a book called The Chemistry Maths Book that touches on most of the math you'll see in chemistry (from very basic arithmetic to calculus and statistics). It also has examples and is very concise.
The subject tests are never released and so there are no past papers to be had. The College Board has 1 large book that contains 1 example of each type of SAT subject test.
SAT Subject Tests Book
Last year the College Board started publishing individual guides. The guides have 2-4 practice tests. There is not a guide for every type of test, but these are the most common ones.
SAT Chemistry
SAT Biology
SAT Math II
SAT Physics
SAT US History
SAT World History
While it may not be quite as engaging as the Feynman Lectures, I liked Brown, LeMay, and Bursten's general chemistry textbook enough to read it cover-to-cover, on my own time. I thought it was very accessible. Plus, older editions are pretty cheap.
This is the edition I read.
And the current edition
Found all these books for less than 250, don't buy books at the bookstore
first, second, third, fourth
You can definitely get the book cheaper on Amazon, used. That listing on the bookstore's site is for a "bundle" which includes the physical textbook, pdf of the book, and online homework code. Looks like CHEM1P is doing a trial online homework website this quarter. That will be completely separate from the textbook. As for the textbook, Randa's syllabus does state to get the 7th edition, although there may be some leniency, as we were allowed to use the 6th edition last fall quarter. However, if you're going to complete the gen chem series (CHEM 1A, 1B, 1C) it may be worth the investment.
Those are the full names
Here are links
Zumdahl:
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Steven-S-Zumdahl/dp/061852844X/ref=la_B001ILMCPG_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406049265&sr=1-2
Chang:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0073402680?pc_redir=1405946005&robot_redir=1
Buy them used and you don't need the latest edition (This saves a lot of money)
Also, for beginning a solid understanding of food chemistry, I recomend starting with chemistry. Find a copy of this book. https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Principles-7th-Steven-Zumdahl/dp/1111580650 and its solution manual (its not hard to get the PDFs online cough cough libgen cough cough). Go through the chapters and do the problems until you actually understand how the solution works. I have a syllabus for the book I can send you if you'd like. All in all, it should take about 3 months if you give it 2-3 hours 4 days a week. Then you'll be able understand chemistry speak and diagrams with a certain authority.
This recent Science paper by the Meyer group on decamethylferrocene dications! http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6300/678
Not sure it counts as 'Chemical Literature', but I'm also half way through the Chemistry Maths Book (https://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Maths-Book-Erich-Steiner/dp/0199205353). Regret not reading this properly back in my undergrad days.
Back in my day, we used this for Gen Chem and this for Principles of Bio. Don't buy textbooks until you make it to campus because they will most likely be using an updated version. Although which edition you get won't matter for the content, it will matter for the end of chapter questions.
Good luck!
I don't have either of those, unfortunately. But my suggestion, as a biology major, is not to buy the BIO201/202 text. I never used it and did well in both of those classes. Do buy the access code, but don't buy it through the bookstore. Wait until the professor gives you the URL to purchase the access code directly through the publisher.
You can buy a used copy of the CHM101/102 text here. This book is the full textbook. The publisher just cuts the book in half and bills it as a custom edition for UNCW.
It doesn’t cause any pigmation. This book has a chapter describing how. It wasn’t kratom but the fact that they worked as field hands outside all there life.
Duh you think that might have an effect on skin
https://www.amazon.com/Kratom-Other-Mitragynines-Chemistry-Pharmacology/dp/1482225182
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Steven-S-Zumdahl/dp/061852844X/ref=sr_1_1
|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Book-Gunpowder-Graphene-Milestones/dp/1454911808
Derek Lowe's "Chemistry Book!" Great example of good science writing, covers topics of historical and scientific interest, and would introduce your student to one of the most influential chemistry writer in the world right now. And his best work is free online!
This is the one used in CHEM 202 and 204:
https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Principles-7th-Steven-Zumdahl/dp/1111580650
The study guide and answer book is kind of a waste though; the answer guide only has odds, but the CLC in Davenport has the answer book with all the answers.
If you have Decoste for 202, you'll almost certainly use it
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Subject-Mathematics-Level-Study/dp/1457309327/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=collegeboard+math&qid=1562120062&s=gateway&sr=8-3
​
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Subject-Chemistry-Study-College/dp/145730919X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=college+board+chemistry&qid=1562120075&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Some excellent starting books for the above subjects is as follows:
Pre-Calculus by Cynthia Y. Young:
https://www.amazon.com/Precalculus-Cynthia-Y-Young/dp/0471756849
Provides an excellent summary of elementary Algebra up to starting concepts of calculus, such as the difference quotient, etc.
Campbell Biology (10th edition):
https://www.amazon.com/Campbell-Biology-10th-Jane-Reece/dp/0321775651/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483427728&sr=1-4&keywords=Biology
Covers pretty much every form of Biology you'll cover throughout your middle school/high school days, up to freshman year of university.
Chemistry 9th Edition: by Steven S. Zumdahl (Author), Susan A. Zumdahl (Author):
https://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Steven-S-Zumdahl/dp/1133611095/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483427816&sr=1-12&keywords=Chemistry
A bit more complex, however once you've gained a grasp of Biology/Algebra, this is a fine novel illustrating all the workings of chemistry you'll cover throughout high-school-freshman year university.
That's all I can really recommend as of now. I'm inclined to believe you're 1-2 grades ahead of your peers, and it shouldn't be too long until you finish up basic arithmetic, and starting learning higher maths. If you intend to develop a higher understanding of these fields, seriously try these books out.
Despite their expense, if you can find a way to rent, study, and complete them, you're basically set til' college.
Also know that these books are the most recent editions of their respective categories: These books are used in a multitude of schools/universities, not just random textbooks delving into irrelevant subjects: Nearly everything encapsulated within them is pertinent.
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Subject-Chemistry-Study-College/dp/145730919X
Also try googling “SAT Subject Tests Past Papers”
no
I got this book with two real tests, scores are out of 85
The Development of Modern Chemistry by Aaron Ihde
https://www.amazon.com/Development-Modern-Chemistry-Dover-Books/dp/0486642356
There are now updated specialized CollegeBoard books for Math 2 (4 past exams) and Chem (2 past exams + there's 1 more exam in the big Official Guide). Get a prep book to review content and work on practice questions if you want, but these exams are unparalleled for accurate diagnostic scores.
Basically, all sorts of things happen because the atoms, molecules, or whatever, want to be stable, i.e to achieve lowest energy. Forming ions, i.e. removing or adding electrons to the atom, is a way for atoms to achieve lowest energy (stable).
The spdf orbitals do come into play. An atom's electronic configuration can be described with its shells, orbitals, and the number of electrons in the orbitals. For example, iron's configuration is 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^6 4s^2 . The electrons has another property, its spin. Spin is an intrinsic form of angular momentum, thus carries energy. Electron can spin two way (that is the up and down arrow you see in orbitals). Pauli exclusion principle says that there cannot be two electrons in a single orbital that have the same spin (since the momemtum is the same direction, it will add up and increase energy). For the similar reason, the pairings of all electrons in a degenerate orbital (i.e. 2p, 3p, 3d, etc. orbitals with the same energy) decreases the energy (cancelled out spins in a way). However, the pairing of electron also increases energy because it decreases the distance between electrons. So, the degenerate orbitals is more stable when it is half filled or fully filled (the latter is more stable). The orbital can be more stable: just don't have the orbital. The energy of an atom is lowered when a specific set of degenerate atomic orbitals is empty, fully filled, or half filled.
Now consider the iron atom again. When it ionizes, it will want to be mroe stable. An obvious option is to take off 4s orbital entirely, losing 2 electrons, thus creating Fe^2+ . Now the ion's configuration is 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^6 . To become more stable, we can make 3d orbitals (take ten electrons at most) half-filled to 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^5 . Compared to the neutral atom, the ion loses three electrons, making it Fe^3+ . But the energy difference between Fe^2+ and Fe^3+ is not that big. External energy and chemical environment can convert them to each other. For example, oxidizing agents, a category of chemicals that love to rob electrons from others, can make Fe^2+ become Fe^3+ by accepting an electron from Fe^2+ .
Are they structurally different? Yes, other than the configuration difference (I think it can count as structure), the atomic radius is different. Fe^3+ is smaller because it has fewer electrons obviously, meaning less repulision between them, and thus stronger attraction to the nucleus.
Textbooks include the one given in the sidebar by Oxtoby and Chang's one. You may be able to find these books in your local post-secondary library. The edition doesn't matter. Oxtoby is a little hard, but it is good for in depth explanation. Chang is great for AP and other high school studnets.
> Books with awesome pictures on the front and terrible stories.
In fairness to Scholastic, we picked this up at the last book fair:
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Visual-Exploration-Every-Universe/dp/1579128955/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417794573&sr=8-1&keywords=the+elements
and it is AMAZING. Gorgeous pictures and lots of scientific data and interesting facts, written in a conversational tone. We ended up buying the author's followup book, Molecules, which is frankly a good supplement to a lot of college chemistry textbooks.
They are good for letting you know the type of questions you can expect.
There are two sample papers in the official guide which will give you a good direction
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Subject-Chemistry-Study-College/dp/145730919X
Chemistry: taking AP chem and studying for that would be really helpful, but not required obviously (that’s just what I did and I feel like the help it gave was immense since AP chem really explains WHY everything is what it is not just knowing that it is). Also, I read both Barron’s and the Princeton book. After reading them and doing the practice questions for every topic I looked over them again lightly to see if I remember the gist of the chapters and everything I didn’t know from school. I did both Princeton’s tests as simulations and looked at the Barron’s tests going “yup yup yup” if I knew the method to solve until I got to something I know I can’t do quick and looked at how to do it. Then, the night before, I increased my confidence (at this point really there wasn’t any point actually studying) by doing one the college board tests they have in their small book for the chem subject test (not the big one, they have one for chem I think it’s blue colored iirc). Okay yeah it is I just looked it up for you here. I planned on going over my mistakes as you would usually do, but I got it all right and got an 800 so I happily went to bed knowing I got this. I took the test the next day. Overall, my advice would be do what I did but give yourself more time since I did it all in a week lmao.
Ugh, this should help you out.
http://www.amazon.com/Statistics-Dummies-Deborah-Rumsey/dp/0764554239/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211298519&sr=8-1
I have this book
I believe in you and take you seriously. I love chemistry, I have been trying to get this book for a while now. It's highly recommended :) http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Chemistry-Science-Series/dp/0313207690
Very interesting, comprehensive, and informative book: "Short History Of Chemistry" by Isaac Asimov
http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Chemistry-Science-Series/dp/0313207690
Here is a couple, the first two are Pop-sci and may be more of what you are looking for. The third is probably the most dense.
​
https://www.amazon.com/Disappearing-Spoon-Madness-Periodic-Elements/dp/0316051632
http://home.theodoregray.com/bookproducts/the-elements-autographed-copy
https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Tree-History-Chemistry-Science/dp/0393320685/ref=sr_1_16?keywords=chemistry+history&qid=1574340632&sr=8-16
Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, $135 new
Physical Chemistry, 9th edition (newer), $74 used (out of print)
Separation Process Principles, $121 new
I have a hard time believing that basic Chemistry book is $670
edit: someone beat me to it, the chemistry book is not $670, its $50
"Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering" by Fogler (4th edition) sells on Amazon for $87.64. (https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Chemical-Reaction-Engineering-4th/dp/0130473944)
"Physical Chemistry" by Atkins, 8th edition sells for $31.50 on Amazon. (https://www.amazon.com/Physical-Chemistry-Peter-Atkins/dp/0716787598)
"Separation Process Principles" (I think 3rd edition if my image enhancer is working properly) sells on Amazon for $65.
"Chemistry" by Zumdahl (I think 7th edition) sells on Amazon for $25.77. (https://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Steven-S-Zumdahl/dp/061852844X)
So $209.91 less shipping fees but these would mail via USPS Media Mail which runs like, at most $3.75 per book so take that out and you're left with $194.91.
College board has a book you can buy. It has real practice SATs designed by College Board.
Edit 1: https://www.amazon.com/Official-Subject-Chemistry-Study-College/dp/145730919X/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1505845066&sr=8-11&keywords=college+board+sat+book
Here is the link on amazon.
The Chemical Tree: A History of Chemistry is a very good history. Someone with no chemical training will be able to read the first handful of chapters, but most of it is written on a level where it really helps to know something about chemistry. The fact that it dedicates an entire chapter to the nonclassical ion controversy of the mid-to-late 20th century is my warning to the layman. If you're a chemist, however, it's a must-read.
I'm not sure how much background knowledge you have, but Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight by Atkins as well as Chemistry by Zumdahl are good general chemistry books (AP level and beyond). Zumdahl is probably better if your knowledge is starting from scratch, although I prefer Atkins.
Also, buy the older editions - they're a lot cheaper and are basically the same.
Reminds me of a book I received several years ago, The Elements, by Theodore Gray. Amazing pictures and some fascinating descriptions.
Surprisingly cheap on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Visual-Exploration-Universe/dp/1579128955
Yes, this will work for you. Older editions will also work and be much cheaper:
There are studies showing the opposite, how it works as an anti-inflammatory agent, perhaps you could look into that to see how effective they found it was, I would recommend reading this book for an in depth analysis and links to further sources.
Chapter 20 of the book concludes, “many strides . . .have been made . . . regarding its potential therapeutic uses as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory agent, and muscle relaxant."
I'm holding off on purchasing my lab stuff all at once. I'm going to spend a month researching, and get a couple books on kratom, like https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/1482225182/ref=mw_dp_olp?ie=UTF8&condition=all
I'm also going to find some books on organic chemistry. I've found that very specific equipment will be needed, and there are dozens of variations, so I don't want to spend hundreds on incomplete lab equipment by going off half cocked. Once I've got a solid understanding, I'll try finding gear for under $300, then post the shopping list here.
Sciguy52 , thanks for the assistance so far! I think if we put together a crowdfunding campaign to obtain a used gc-ms, this community could rise to the occasion. I'm going to haunt some other subs and forums, and see if I can't find a group of experts willing to offer suggestions and insights.
We should come up with informal surveys, use cases, and scour all the anecdotal information out there to try to provide a comprehensive scientific resource.
Herbal medicine is woefully under-represented in western culture. The internet is allowing good information to rapidly spread, but it's as hard as ever to provide authoritative sources. The kratom Wikipedia article is a great example of this, where ignorance has prevailed.
Access probably refers to access codes. Some courses require access codes to let you do homework online. You can either get the code with a new copy of the textbook or separately online off of the publisher's website. Out of the classes you listed, I've only taken Chem 1331, which didn't need one. I'd wait to see if your courses actually need them before buying them though.
As far as the textbooks go, I've only had one course where a physical copy was required, and that was because the tests were open book. PDFs work well if the textbook isn't used much for the class, but I personally prefer physical copes of my most used books.
One trick is to buy one edition older than the required text. Take chemistry for example. You guys need to get the 6th edition of Silberberg's Chemistry book I presume. Instead, you can get a used 5th edition book (that was actually the required text when I took the course) starting at $15 on Amazon.
Usually you can get away with getting an older version of the textbook with out a problem. It should be fine for Chem, but you can double check with your other professors as well.
A standard chemistry textbook runs you about $300. Multiply that by four or five classes students usually take, and take into account many professors require two or three books. That's easily $2,000 in a semester, just for textbooks.
People have this idea that textbooks are cheap. They are not.
Nobel laureate in one field?? Did you miss the bit about the other Nobel prize?
Francis Crick called him the father of molecular biology: http://articles.latimes.com/1986-03-01/local/me-13101_1_crick
.
Textbooks written:
General Chemistry
The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals: An Introduction to Modern Structural Chemistry
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry
.
Vitamin C vindication:
The trouble with most vitamin C studies is usually too small a dose. Also the oral vs intravenous thing. You know animals produce grams and grams per day, humans have a genetic deficit. This is my favourite article to explain: http://www.hearttechnology.com/1992-v07n01-p005.pdf
http://scienceblogs.com/gofindyourowndamnlinks/2009/02/18/vitamin-c-and-cancer-has-linus-pauling-b/
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/linus-pauling-vindicated-researchers-claim-rda-for-vitamin-c-is-flawed-71172707.html
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/aug/05/cancer.medicalresearch
http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2008/4/newly-discovered-benefits-of-vitamin-c/Page-01
.
Heart disease is scurvy:
http://nutritionreview.org/2013/04/collagen-connection/
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/pdf-files/heart_book.pdf
.
Also, here's an interesting read on nukes (remember that peace prize?) and free radicals (that other one was in chemistry): http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2011/6/optimize-your-internal-defenses-against-radiation-exposure/Page-02
.
I hope this helps! My personal random-guy-on-the-internet recommendation is several hundred milligrams a few times a day, preferably away from food, increasing dosage during illness.