Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 32
 Excellent introduction to chemistry! March 8, 2006
O. Karlsrud (Skedsmokorset Norway)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
This book is an excellent introduction to chemistry. If all 'for dummies' books are as good as this one, I will certainly buy more of them. I have a background in natural sciences myself (master's degree in mathematics), but I never studied chemistry at the university (or in high school for that matter). Given this background, I was afraid that a 'for dummies' book would be too dumbed down. I was happy to learn that this is not the case. I was surprised at the degree of understanding I got from this book. You actually learn how electrons take part in reactions (valence numbers and all that), and how to do simple calculations. This means that you learn enough theory to predict to a certain extent what will happen in a reaction. In addition there are lots of real life examples, with chapters on organic chemistry, pollution, chemistry in the home, and so on. This book is not meant to replace a university text book of course, but I doubt if you learn more theory than this in a high school course in chemistry. Actually I would think you learn less in a high school course, since I think some of the topics would be difficult for high school students. But of course you learn to do a few experiments in high school, which this book could never teach you (it would probably be irresponsible to try this in self-study book).
Excellent First Cut at a Difficult Topic December 28, 2005
Douglas Long (San Rafael, CA USA)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
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.
 A good chemisty ADJUNCT with pros and cons... November 18, 2005
Benjamin Britton (Colorado, USA)
45 out of 49 found this review helpful
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.
Good chemistry book, but not perfect November 10, 2005
John Marrow
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
I am currently attending a community college and have been taking my very first chemistry course over the past couple of months. I thought this book would be able to get me "up to speed" in chemistry since I have never taken chemistry at the high school level.
The author does an excellent job in explaining topics in such a way that one doesn't have to have any prior chemistry knowledge to understand what he is saying. Another bonus is that this book has a comprehensive table of contents and a good index, so finding a specific topic to study or read up on is a breeze.
However, this book does have its flaws. And that is it doesn't adequately explain how to perform certain things like stoichiometry or dimensional analysis. The book would be better if it had more examples of math-based chemistry problems. Instead, it only offers a handful, and the ones it has are usually extremely easy problems. This can build false confidence, as it did with me. For example, I studied the section on stoichiometry in this book, and was able to do the problem that the author gave. I thought this meant that I was ready to take on any stoichiometric problem. To my surprise, in chemistry class I ran across multiple types of stoichiometric problems that were much harder than the one in Chemistry for Dummies, and I didn't have a clue as to how to do them.
But I realize the author might be limited due to space limitations and can't go in-depth in explaining every type of chemistry problem.
My suggestion to anyone who is thinking about purchasing this book is: if you're just wanting a broad overview of chemistry, but aren't planning on taking a chemistry course, then this book is fine for you. But if you're about to take a chemistry course, and you're looking for a book that will help you throuhout that course, then I recommend buying this book, and also buying a chemistry book that is dedicated to teaching how to perform the "math" based chemistry problems, such as balancing equations, dimensional analysis, stoichiometry, etc. Because while this book touches on those areas, it doesn't do so in-depthly enough to prepare you for a chemistry course.
chemistry for dummies October 7, 2005
Humberto A. Pozo (Portland, Oregon)
3 out of 11 found this review helpful
Best book for learning basic chemistry.
Instructions are easy to follow.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 32
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