Chemistry for Dummies

I am not going to say this book is perfect; its not. But I find the only flaws are the typos and the content is great. This is the type of book I read for enjoyment (I admit others will not) and I got something out of it. It assumes you know very little about chemistry and it teaches you how to apply chemistry in the real world. It is a fun read, and very very informative. I would not recommend this for taking an AP course in high school as your only source of information -- this is a supplemental information, not a text book. But it will teach you a lot the sometimes text books do not.
This is a great book to help you expand on your everyday knowledge to learn more about chemistry and how it effects your life. If you are looking for chemistry content and clarity, this book may be just for you.


Good, but kind of fluffy   September 24, 2003
sloppy (Hartford, CT USA)
48 out of 53 found this review helpful

Whether or not you should buy this book really depends on what you need it for.

If you're interested in learning more about how chemistry is used in everyday life, this book is excellent. It does a very good job of explaining how chemistry is used in a variety of consumer and industrial situations. This is an interesting book in this sense, and very complete.

However, if you're taking a chemistry class, this is not such a good book. The explanations of chemical topics are a little fluffy, and certainly not what anybody would consider complete. While well-written and lively, it's just not "chemical" enough to give the serious student any real help when studying.

My conclusion: If you're looking for a fun book about chemistry, buy this one. If you're a student who needs help, go elsewhere.


Useless, just like any "dummies" book   September 8, 2003
IAF_67 (USA)
27 out of 54 found this review helpful

I bought this book because I was having a tough time in Chemistry last year (high school chem no less). On the rare occasion when I actually understood what was going on enough to try and learn more about it; I would turn to this for just that purpose. However, the answers I received were never what I was looking for; as the differences between my Chemistry book and this thing were so different that this book was rendered utterly useless. For example, this book was obsessed with the unit called "torrs". Well, we never, EVER, used that unit in my Chem class. There was also no conversion formula mentioned anywhere in here either, and even if there was, do I really have the time to be able to convert EVERY little thing that I do into another unit?

Also, as with any other "dummies" book, this book tries to be funny. Frankly, after I've just spent the last two hours trying to figure out just what the heck I'm doing, the last thing I want to see is humor. If they spent as much time getting good information in this book as they did making it "cute"....

This book also likes to get into exactly what being a chemist entails; or, if not that, they like to get into how Chemistry is "applied". We all know that, if you're just taking a Chem class because you have to, and you have no interest in pursuing a career in that field, then you're never going to have to deal with it again. Therefore, why would you CARE about how the properties of Viagra (to pick one useless subject) were discovered? Don't they realize no High School OR college student is going to care about that? Why doesn't the author, instead, spend more time on subjects that you're actually going to NEED to learn?

Overall, the only "Dummy" here is the author of this book, John T. Moore. He does a very poor job of explaining even the most basic concepts; concepts that you will need if you wish to be successful in this area of study. If you want a helpful guide for Chemistry, look elsewhere.


Great book   June 19, 2003
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

This book is very informative and to the point. The examples and analogies are perfect to the content explained. The author actually makes it fun to learn chemistry, and makes you want to pursue a future in it (I'm going into Chem. Engineering). Like most books this doesn't put you to sleep with boring facts after facts. This is recommended to any high school student or beginner of college, and will give you a good head start.