Customer Reviews

Chemistry: The Central Science, Ninth Edition

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am currently in the second semester of a two-semester general chemistry course. Overall, I have found this text to be very helpful as a supplement to lectures.

I say this is a solid text primarily because of the glut of problems for you to practice on, and the nice flow of information through the chapters. The text is written with clarity in mind, and with clarity it does convey its topics. With well-placed worked sample problems and excellent charts and diagrams, this is a great book to have in hand if you're taking a college-level chemistry course.

However, this book has its limitations in that there are several topics that are covered at the college level that are not really expounded on by the book. For example, the text gives a half-page introduction on semiconductors and how electron excitation works in semiconductors ; we did one full lecture on it. Furthermore, some of the problems that hit you in the form of the professor's custom-made, self-written problem sets occasionally involve problem solving methods that are not even covered in the book. I experienced a fair share of this when I saw application questions that involved a lot more variables than any of the book's questions involved.

This brings me to talk about my last perceived limitation of the textbook: its lack of good application / integrative exercises. I like the book's armada of additional exercises at the end of the chapter, but I think a better textbook should include more application problems - sort of like 'problem-based learning', if that's a better way to put it. A good example would be the types of questions you can expect to see on a final exam - questions that implicitly expect you to apply all sorts of concepts obtained from the whole chapter, and possibly even concepts from previous chapters - to solve a real world problem.

To conclude, the pros of this book include its clarity in explaining concepts, the decent flow from topic to topic, and its solid arsenal of practice problems and worked sample problems. The cons include its lack of application problems (problem-based learning), need for more in-depth discussions of some topics, and need for more problem solving strategies. Overall a great text, but a better text can bring my B up to an A in this class.

I used this book for Chemistry II (second semester General College Chemistry). Compared to my first semester text, this is the best text ever.

College chemistry is designed to be difficult, the books shouldn't be. My 1st textbook talked and discussed as if we were Master's student's majoring in chemistry... not freshman.

This text speaks generally in ENGLISH and not in Chemistry jargon like so many textbooks do.

You won't get all the unneccessary information that many other texts have, and the author's seem like they actually want you to learn chemistry... not a common idea in chemistry texts or by professors.

Of course, as with any college level text, a basic high school chemistry course is recommended before taking or reading this text...

Enjoy!!!

I am currently taking an AP chemistry class, and we use this book. The class is meant to be extremely difficult, accelarated, and in-depth. We cover 22 out of the 25 chapters; we do not do modern materials, chemistry of the environment, or coordination compounds.
I feel like this book tries to cover too much for a first year college course. For example, I think they go overboard with the organic and biochemistry, the metallurgy, and the molecular orbitals at the end of chapter 9.
However, I think chapters like the one on electronic structure should take more time on the electrol configuration on transition metals and exceptions to Hund's rule and less time on the line spectra, the Bohr model, and the wave behavior of matter. The quantum mechanics, which I consider to be a very important part of electronic structure, is summarized in a table and barely explained.
The best part of the book is that there are a ton of problems for practice.
It is NOT a good book to use if you are trying to teach yourself college chemistry. You absolutely must have a teacher in conjunction with this book.

This text is a great introduction for students just beginning their study of chemistry at either the advanced highschool or college freshman level. Every chapter has a review and questions so that the reader is able to verify how much (or indeed how little) they have learned. It's easy to read and quite thorough, and for someone in a science field it's also a great reference to keep on hand for when those basic details begin to slip. I found myself consulting it frequently as I prepared for my MCAT examination, and it still has a place in my science library. As for the CD-Rom, I'm sure it's lovely, but I've never even put it in the computer. Overall a worthwhile purchase if you need a chem text.

I found this book to be very easy to read and follow. There are lots of pictures, diagrams, graphs, and tables which aide in understandin the text. There are review sections and questions at the end of every chapter so it is easy to tell if you have learned the material or not, plus you get plenty of practice. It covers all the basic advanced highschool chemistry and is a great book to go through before freshmen level chemistry in college. Overall this book is an excellent learning tool weather you are using it in a class or just using it for a reference for upper level chemistry classes.

This text is widely used and has helped many students to understand chemistry. The sequence of topics presented is traditional. It has a good chapter on modern materials. The dual-column format of examples clearly shows problem solving strategies.

This, and all other similar textbooks, are written for studnents who have appropriate background in high school sciences and reasonable reading comprehension. It is not fair to compare this book with a teacher whom you can talk face to face. Considering the poor reading skills of today's college students, most of whom have hard time with any materals written at 8th grade readability level and do have no idea on how to read and use a textbook, it is impossible for any textbook to do the magic of enlightening them.

The companion website of this text has thousands of problems available for practice, much more than most other similar textbook websites. Learning chemistry is like learning how to play tennis. You can't expect to learn how to play tennis by watching tennis matches on TV. Similarly, you can't expect to learn chemistry by simply reading the textbook or watching your professors solve problems in class. You have to practice. If this is the text you are using, take advantage of this good resource. Students using other texts are not as lucky as you are.

For a slightly more engaging text, see the one by Moore, Stanitski and Jurs.

I am a teacher using this book for an AP Chem class. I have found the book very difficult to use. Topics are rather disconnected and most of my students had trouble following the logic of more difficult subjects. The early chapters are particularly difficult. I have also found numerous mistakes with the materials available to teachers. The number of errors on the power point presentations are ridiculous. I also questions some of the answers with regards to the use of significant fiqures.

The Web Site is excellent even though I only use the standard version and not the electronic chapters. The solution manual is so-so. Sometimes shortcuts are used without explanation which is dangerous for AP students.

I would not recommend this book for use in the high school classroom from the point of view of both the teacher using the books and materials and the student attempting to learn from the book.

I took a first year Chemistry course through an online school. That means I had little interaction with a prof and none with fellow students. To supplement my work there I bought this text.

The text is readable, yet technically sound and thorough. It puts a knowledge carrot in front of your nose and never fails to let you grab it as you strive from one point of fascination to the next. Examples are clear and problems range from easy to quite challenging. Using this text as my main source I managed 95% for my first year course.

Bar none - the best Chemistry text I have ever seen.

This book gives a great overview of freshman chemistry. I bought it as a reference to use teaching high school chemistry. I love the illustrations and the way the author makes complex issues simple while providing just enough material to ramp-up lessons for AP students.
I picked up this used for $20! What a deal!

I am taking this book for college and it is truly very good. It covers every content for inorganic chemistry. Moreover, the fancy pictures, explanations, examples, essays ease the learning experienfce that you may entail with this book.
The supplementary website and CD-ROM are pretty helpful as well. Specially the website, I like it very much because it had 3-D pictures of experiments and bonds, which help you to imagine the reaction menchanism of inorganic compounds.
The exercise section is extensive 80 question for each section. The same type of exercises repeat often, yet they really help if someone wants to practice more and more for a test.
For someone who has taken stoichometry, inorganic naming, gas laws, bonding and basic concepts of inorganic chemistry (like me) in High School, then teh first sections might be useless. However, the last sections which covers thermochemistry, electrochemistry are quite intriguing and interesting.
Overall, I think this is a great book as I mentioned. Although I think that I would buy one edition earlier since the contents do not vary very much (but the price does!)