Chemistry Essentials For Dummies E-Book

John T. Moore

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 238

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Whether studying chemistry as part of a degree requirement or aspart of a core curriculum, students will find ChemistryEssentials For Dummies to be an invaluable quick referenceguide to the fundamentals of this often challenging course.Chemistry Essentials For Dummies contains content focused onkey topics only, with discrete explanations of critical conceptstaught in a typical two-semester high school chemistry class or acollege level Chemistry I course, from bonds and reactions toacids, bases, and the mole. This guide is also a perfect referencefor parents who need to review critical chemistry concepts as theyhelp high school students with homework assignments, as well as foradult learners headed back into the classroom who just need to arefresher of the core concepts. The Essentials For Dummies Series Dummies is proud to present our new series, The Essentials ForDummies. Now students who are prepping for exams, preparing tostudy new material, or who just need a refresher can have aconcise, easy-to-understand review guide that covers an entirecourse by concentrating solely on the most important concepts. Fromalgebra and chemistry to grammar and Spanish, our expert authorsfocus on the skills students most need to succeed in a subject.

Leseprobe

Chemistry Essentials For Dummies®

Chemistry Essentials For Dummies®

by John T. Moore, EdD

Chemistry Essentials For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2010925163

ISBN: 978-0-470-61836-3

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

John T. Moore grew up in the foothills of Western North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina-Asheville where he received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He earned his Master’s degree in chemistry from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. After a stint in the United States Army, he decided to try his hand at teaching. In 1971, he joined the chemistry faculty of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas where he still teaches chemistry. In 1985, he started back to school part time and in 1991 received his Doctorate in Education from Texas A&M University.

John’s area of specialty is chemical education, especially at the pre-high school level. For the last several years, he has been the co-editor (along with one of his former students) of the Chemistry for Kids feature of The Journal of Chemical Education. He has authored Chemistry For Dummies and Chemistry Made Simple, and he’s co-authored 5 Steps To A Five: AP Chemistry, Chemistry for the Utterly Confused, and Biochemistry For Dummies.

John lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife Robin and their two dogs. He enjoys brewing his own beer and mead and creating custom knife handles from exotic woods. And he loves to cook. His two boys, Jason and Matt, remain in the mountains of North Carolina along with his twin grandbabies, Sadie and Zane.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

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Introduction

Congratulations on making a step toward discovering more about what I consider a fascinating subject: chemistry. For more than 40 years, I’ve been a student of chemistry. This includes the time I’ve been teaching chemistry, but I still consider myself a student because I’m constantly finding out new facts and concepts about this important and far-reaching subject.

Hardly any human endeavor doesn’t involve chemistry in some fashion. People use chemical products in their homes — cleaners, medicines, cosmetics, and so on. And they use chemistry in school, from the little girl mixing vinegar and baking soda in her volcano to the Ivy League grad student working on chemical research.

Chemistry has brought people new products and processes. Many times this has been for the good of humankind, but sometimes it’s been for the detriment. Even in those cases, people used chemistry to correct the situations. Chemistry is, as has been said many times, the central science.

About This Book

My goal with this book is to give you the really essential information and concepts that you would face in a first semester chemistry class in high school or college. I’ve omitted a lot of topics found in a typical chemistry textbook. This book is designed to give you the bare essentials.

Remember, this is a light treatment. If you want more, many other books are available. My favorite, naturally, is Chemistry For Dummies. I understand the author is really a great guy.

Conventions Used in This Book

Here are a couple of conventions you find in For Dummies books:

I use italics to emphasize new words and technical terms, which I follow with easy-to-understand definitions.

Bold text marks keywords in bulleted lists and highlights the general steps to follow in a numbered list.

In addition, I’ve tried to organize this book in approximately the same order of topics found in a one-semester general chemistry course. I’ve included some figures for you to look at; refer to them as you read along. Also, pay particular attention to the reactions that I use. I’ve attempted to use reactions that you may be familiar with or ones that are extremely important industrially.

Foolish Assumptions

I don’t know your exact reasons for picking up this guide, but I assume you want to know something about chemistry. Here are some reasons for reading:

You may be taking (or retaking) a chemistry class. This book offers a nice, quick review for your final exam. It can also give you a refresher before you plunge into a new course, such as biochemistry or organic chemistry.

You may be preparing for some type of professional exam in which a little chemistry appears. This book gives you the essentials, not the fluff.

You may be a parent trying to help a student with his or her homework or assignment. Pay attention to what your child is currently studying and try to stay a little ahead.

Finally, you may be what people call a “nontraditional student.” You knew most of this material once upon a time, but now you need a quick review.

Whatever the reason, I hope that I’m able to give you what you need in order to succeed. Good luck!

Icons Used in This Book

If you’ve read any other For Dummies books (such as the great Chemistry For Dummies), you’ll recognize the two icons used in this book. Here are their meanings:

This icon alerts you to those really important things you shouldn’t forget. These are ideas that you most probably need to memorize for an exam.

This icon points out the easiest or quickest way to understand a particular concept. These are the tricks of the trade that I’ve picked up in my 40+ years learning chemistry.

Where to Go from Here

Where you go next really depends on you and your reason for using this book. If you’re having difficulty with a particular topic, go right to that chapter and section. If you’re a real novice, start at Chapter 1 and go from there. If you’re using the book for review, skim quickly starting at the beginning and read in more depth those topics that seem a little fuzzy to you. You can even use this book as a fat bookmark in your regular chemistry textbook.

Whatever way you use this book, I hope that it helps and you grow to appreciate the wonderful world of chemistry.

Chapter 1

Matter and Energy: Exploring the Stuff of Chemistry

In This Chapter

Understanding the states of matter

Differentiating between pure substances and mixtures

Measuring matter with the metric system

Examining the properties of chemical substances

Discovering the different types of energy

Simply put, chemistry is a whole branch of science about matter, which is anything that has mass and occupies space. Chemistry is the study of the composition and properties of matter and the changes it undergoes.

Matter and energy are the two basic components of the universe. Scientists used to believe that these two things were separate and distinct, but now they realize that matter and energy are linked. In an atomic bomb or nuclear reactor, for instance, matter is converted into energy. (Perhaps someday science fiction will become a reality and converting the human body into energy and back in a transporter will be commonplace.)