Customer Reviews

General Chemistry (4th Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This text is best suited for very good students who are motivated, comfortable reading English at a high level and mathematically adept: other students would be served much better by a different book. It contains far more material than could possibly be covered in a standard freshman general chemistry sequence, even with a good class. The authors assume that their audience is composed of the students I described initially (I am told it is the textbook at MIT), and leave it to the instructor to "break it down" for the students. Initially, I was not fond of this book, but I have slowly changed my mind, and I believe I have a better grasp of introductory chemistry thanks to the extra depth it goes to and the challenges it made me rise to.

_General Chemistry (4th Edition)_ is the book that has taught me most of what I know about chemistry. I just finished my second semester of general chemistry, and I enjoyed reading the chapters very much. In total, I went through well over 700 pages of it with a fine-tooth comb, and I never once had difficulty with the material. Every problem in the book refers back to what you learn in the chapters. It rarely leaves you in the dark (it will tell you when something is beyond the scope of the text).

It is not a difficult read if your competency with the English language is satisfactory. Never once did the thought occur to me that the explanations are too difficult to understand. The authors are quite eloquent. Furthermore, there are a prodigious number of information boxes, tables, and graphs scattered throughout the book. There are also quite a few hints, chapter summaries, and lengthy introductions that explain the importance of the material that you are about to learn. Honestly, what more could you ask for?

The organization of the material itself is strange at times (like another reviewer noted), but overall it is well done. It would have been best if the organic chemistry concepts were saved until the very end of the book because they tend to distract from the less advanced concepts. In any case, they don't appear too often. The only other problem that I can think of involves the answers to the end-of-the-chapter problems. On several occasions, my professor and I found answers in the back of the book that were simply wrong. Evidently, the authors updated the text and missed a few.

However, in the final analysis, I fail to see how a rating less than five stars is appropriate. For the sheer size and quality of _General Chemistry_, the few flaws that it contain are negligible.

This text was used in 1999-2000 at Oregon State University for the 100-level General Chem sequence for non-science majors. It is an excellent text with a (generally) friendly approach to introductory topics, and there are many nice photographs and discussion boxes containing info about practical chem applications. For some reason, the authors include a significant section on organic chemistry in chapter 2, far before they discuss bonding.... Other than that, this book is great. Better than four out of five other general chem texts.

I am currently reading this text book as a chemistry refresher so these concepts are familiar to me. I found this book easier to understand in comparison to my original class text. This book is easy to read and the concepts are clearly defined. This book does not rely heavily on calculations as other books do which makes it easier to read without having to stop and do a calculation every other paragraph. I would recommend this book for students who want a companion book for their class work or for those who need to refresh on general concepts.

This book is exactly the title says it is : General Chemistry. It does a more than adequate job at accomplishing this and covering not only the basics but giving you a taste of slightly more complex things in a very obvious way.

It is because of textbooks such as this one that students lose interest in chemistry, and, worse, science in general. Yes, it is filled with LOTS of information, but there are many instances in which otherwise relatively simple concepts are twisted into something incomprehensible. In some cases, it seemed that the authors went out of their way to explain a topic in the most convoluted manner possible. Come on guys, chemistry is complex enough as it is, so rather than write a tome displaying how much YOU know about the topic, how about a more "student friendly" textbook that doesn't so readily confirm most people's suspicians that chemistry is as dry as saw dust.

This book is being used for my 'Chemistry for Engineers' class. The class has a pre-requisite for freshmen chemistry. So to be fair, this book is definitely A++++ for those of us that have had a good introductory course in chemistry but probably not so great for those that don't have a good chemistry background.

For example, the book does not wast to much time in the introductory stuff like nomenclature, how to visualize matter, classification of matter etc. Other than that the book is very very good for the non introductory stuff, like thermodynamics, electrochemistry, nuclear chemistry etc.

I'd like to suggest a very good introductory textbook as supplement for the first 4 chapters of this textbook. The textbook is called "Introductory Chemistry 3 edition, Nivaldo J. Tro." The best thing is that the supplement book I'm mentioning goes for like 7 bucks on here, a definite must have.

Other than that, I didn't want to rate the book low because of the introductory stuff since the books is directed towards an audience that 'should' have a firm grasp of introductory chemistry.

It is an excellent textbook for science and engineer. Pictures and contents are easy to read and understand.

This book has been my textbook for two years, and it has gotten me to the study camp in USNCO. It is evenly comprehensive and pretty clear, especially when compared to other texts I've seen.

This book is very up-to-date. Alos, there are may colorful pictures, that can attract the readers to keep on reveiwing. It is not a wonderful book for literature review, but it is a suitable book for the new-learner of Chemistry. In which, many examples are shown which can explain the theories effectively. Also, the index is arranged with a lots of words, that can be conventient for the readers to find out what we look for.