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Product Description

We-re all natural born chemists. Every time we cook, clean, take a shower, drive a car, use a solvent, such as fingernail polish remover, or perform any of the countless everyday activities that involve complex chemical reactions we-re doing chemistry. You might even say that we-re all participating in a grand chemistry experiment that started with the first human who mixed pigments to do a cave painting. Why do so many of us desperately resist learning chemistry when we-re young? Maybe it has something to do with the way it-s taught in school.

Now there-s a fun, easy way to learn basic chemistry. Whether you-re studying chemistry in school and you-re looking for a little help making sense of what-s being taught in class, or you-re just into learning new things for their own sake, Chemistry For Dummies gets you rolling with all the basics of matter and energy, atoms and molecules, acids and bases, and much more. In no time you-ll:

• Understand atomic structure and function
• Use the Periodic Table of elements
• Know what happens when matter changes from one state to another
• Explore ionic and covalent bonding
• Get a handle on chemical reactions
• Perform simple chemistry calculations
• Understand acids, bases, pHs, antacids, and gases
• Make sense Boyle-s Law, Avrogadro-s Law and other key laws in chemistry

Packed with examples of chemistry in action in everyday life, Chemistry For Dummies is a fascinating exploration of broad range of topics in chemistry, including:

• States of matter, from the macroscopic to the microscopic
• Understanding how the elements are arranged in the Periodic Table
• Nuclear chemistry, radioactivity and radioactive decay
• Positive and negative ions and ionic compounds
• Covalent bonding in covalent compounds
• Chemical reactions, chemical equilibrium, and electrochemistry
• The mole and how it-s used to calculate chemical reactions
• Great serendipitous discoveries in chemistry
• Environmental chemistry

Written in plain English and requiring only basic math, Chemistry For Dummies puts you on the fast track to mastering the basics of chemistry.

Customer Reviews:

• No Dummy would ever take Chemistry
  One thing I always enjoyed about the "for Dummies" series is the sense of humor and real realism in them. This book does an OK job, and is written by a Professor who understands what students struggle with and tries to make it as simple as possible. But Chemistry is a very complex and vast subject, no one book could contain every aspect of it. This book should be seen as a review or a brush up on chemistry, it by no means covers all the topics you will take in a Inorganic Chemistry class, especially the farther you go into the semester. The fact is most people who will be using this book are those students entering into Inorganic Chemistry, or General Chemistry. I do feel he could devote a few of the chapters to topics that will discussed in most Inorganic chemistry textbooks instead of such things as Organic Chemistry, which is a subject unto itself, air pollution, water pollution, and chemistry in the home for example. All relevant topics, but not really going to help you get a passing grade on a test. This is a supplement to your textbook that I feel is well worth spending a few bucks on and using it to your advantage. ...more info
• Read before you take chemistry 101.
  I bought this book as a supplement to my Chemistry 101 textbook. I was really looking for a more complete explanation of electron configuration, which I didn't find this book to be that helpful with. Overall, I thought this book helped to reinforce some of the basic concepts, but didn't really have much of an impact on my grade. I would recommend this book to someone who wants an overview of chemistry before taking the course or to someone who needs to brush up on basic chemistry before taking a more advanced course. It can also be helpful if you're having trouble with a particular topic. I did enjoy the supplemental information in the book having to do with chemistry of everyday life. ...more info
• chemistry for dummies
  Best book for learning basic chemistry.
  Instructions are easy to follow....more info
• Chemistry For Dummies
  It is such a detailed book. I used to think I knew a lot about chemistry, but when I read Chemistry For Dummies, I learned a lot more. Thanks John T. EdD Moore....more info
• Well written
  The book is very well written and quite humorous. It is good for a beginner or people who want to review....more info
• Fabulous!
  Received "Chemistry for Dummies," and though it took longer than anticipated to receive, it arrived in mint condition. It was listed as a used book - I would never have guessed!
  
  ...more info
• A good chemisty ADJUNCT with pros and cons...
  First of all, of course this isn't going to cover everything in your Chemistry I class, or it would be a textbook!
  
  This adjunct is a good supplement to Chemsitry I. It often explains ideas in a different way which increases your chances of actually understanding the material. It covers quite a bit, given what it actually covers.
  
  ************Note update 7/2007***********************
  
  Someone asked me a question about The teaching company video series, if it is college level. Well, no. It is High school chemistry. However, having never had high school chemistry, after going through the course, I passed chem I with an A... and I really didn't notice an educational level difference. The material presented was pretty much what you go over in College Chemistry I, so taking chem I once, getting an F, watching the teaching companies Chemistry set over Christmas break, and then getting 1 of 2 A's in the class the next semester speaks for itself :).
  Pros: A good adjunct for first semester General Chemistry I. Good ideas and superior explanations of ideas. Often explains topics in many different ways.
  
  Cons: Like most For Dummies books, the second semester isn't covered. I guess they assume you fully understand all concepts the first semester. This book covers (barely) maybe 1 topic from Chemistry II.
  
  Worth buying for Chemistry I, the ideas will be helpful for Chemistry II, but another or more complete book that includes the 2nd semester would be helpful.
  
  Other adjuncts you may find helpful: The Standard Deviants 3VHS set. The Teaching Company's 'High School Chemistry' video set by Frank Cardulla. This (the teaching co video) is the reason I was 1 of 3 A's in my class....more info
• Very Helpful! Highly Recommended !
  As a High Schooler who is taking Honors Chemistry, I bought this book in case I needed help understanding its abstract ideas. And boy am I glad I did! I don't know how many times I have referred to this book when struggling with the material covered in class. With its simple English for "Dummies", this book is very well written and really helps me grasp the concepts of Chemistry. If you are taking this class in the future and a little apprehensive about how well you will do in the world of atoms, isotopes, the periodic table, and more, then do yourself a favor a BUY this book, you won't be sorry!...more info
• Great Chemistry Intro
  An excellent introduction/refresher book. The only issue I had was the habitual America-centric writing I have to endure with most U.S books. When talking about pollution for example we only got figures for the United States as if no where else is relevant. These books are sold and read outside of the U.S....more info
• Very helpful for the chemistry-challenged nursing student
  I am a nursing student, and I wish I had purchased this book earlier in the semester, instead of waiting for it to become available at the public library. After reading, what I am studying makes so much more sense. Chemistry is less of a black hole now. I like the quirky way it's written. The author does a good job of making the information feel a lot more friendly. My chemistry textbook this term does a fairly good job of explaining things, but I was still lost. Chemistry for Dummies was the 'lightbulb' I needed to make everything clearer. I am algebra-challenged and this book was quite a helpful adjunct to the class.

  As an aside, it's true... you will almost never need this much chemistry unless you are a chemistry major. And this is just the baby stuff! I have queried nurses and they tell me they simply don't use it. Very frustrating, and a huge mental stumbling block for me, especially since schools in my area which are geared toward two year RN degrees don't require Biology I & II, which is far more applicable to nursing than chemistry.

  Now I just have to figure out a good book to help me muddle through the next level of chemistry (required for a master's degree). .. General Chemistry and Qualitative Analysis. Gack!!!!...more info

• Chemisty for Dummies
  It was helpful as well as could be. For me Chemistry is a very difficult subject to understand, it did help clarify some areas....more info
• The Best Intro to Chemistry
  Obviously when I bought this book I knew nothing at all about chemistry. And I must say that this book majorly helped me to understand what I had originally assumed was a tough subject to learn. If you're like I was and feel threatened by chemistry, don't worry about it. Believe it or not, chemistry is mainly common sense. Example, if you had two molecules and wanted one of them to hit the other right on a certain spot, you can use a "catalyst" which will hold down one of the molecules so that its other side is showing and available to be hit or bonded, etc. That's a heterogenous catalyst. Still sound complicated? If so don't worry because you get a nice slow introduction before that part. Catalysts aren't even discussed until a third of the way into the book. There's a lot of common sense to the world and the way it operates on an atomic and subatomic level. Although I haven't taken any chemistry courses yet, I have faith that just this book alone will give me an edge over the other students in general chemistry as well as organic chemistry. I'll have to check back then and write a follow-up review, but for now this book is highly recommended....more info
• Turns Intolerable Torture Into Fascinating Frustration
  I think schools everywhere should quit being snobs, get out of the expensive textbook racket, wise up and start using "for Dummies" as material for classroom instruction. I'm being 100% serious. I think there is a lot more to be learned from a good "just the basics" series like these than in so many badly-written, boring instructional books published for in-class use.
  
  Someone can read this book in a few nights and come away knowing more for her twenty bucks than another person who spent a grand on a 100-level Chem class. All the good stuff is here and it's really all 99.9% of the American public ever needs (or wants) to know.
  
  I recommend this book. It's good. Read it and give your ignorance a wedgie....more info
• not intended for dummmies
  It was a bit too detailed for my liking. I felt it could have been broken down into more laymans terms with more examples. I found it difficult to stay interested. it was more for a person going to be a chemist rather than a person trying to get a step ahead for a college chemistry course...more info
• Pretty good
  This book does a good job of explaining basic chemical principles and application. While it might helpful to those who have weak background in chemistry and math yet are required to college-level chemistry courses, it was not written to be a textbook or study guide. Do not blame the book for what it does not intend to do. Many students today in this country cannot handle simple algebra that 7th grade students in many other countries have no difficuties with. Any books written above 8th grade reading level are difficult for even many college students to understand. It is unfair for them to blame this book for their failure in studying chemistry. It takes a lot more than a good book to be successful in any classes. This book, nor any others, is not a replacement of your positive attitude and hard work. Overall, this book is well written and easily understood....more info
• Easy do it yourselfer!
  I needed this book for my nursing entrance exam, it was for sure worth every penny!...more info
• Excellent First Cut at a Difficult Topic
  I read this book before diving into an undergrad Into to Chemistry class. This book was extremely helpful, by making sense of the textbook I would later use (Timberlake, also highly recommended). I've read many Dummies books, some good, some bad, and this is one of the best. ...more info