By training I’m an engineer. But I never took even HS chem, much less college.
So while I’ve got a decent working knowledge of physics, electronics, & some macro-scale materials science, my chemistry ends with the broad outlines of the periodic table and an arm-waving awareness of electrons liking to be in shells whose fullness or not gives rise to their reactivity. After that it’s all “Blah blah Ginger blah blah blah.”
I’d like to remedy that. So I’m looking for a dead-tree textbook and / or some online resources which can give me an organized course of study for say, 2 semesters of college level chemistry.
So far I’ve found the appalling mess of 400+ years of overlapping, illogical, & defective terminology to be a big obstacle in trying to piece together understanding from sources like Google & Wikipedia.
Does anyone have any recommendations?
Mod note: I recognize this is inherently asking for opinions and is hence not strictly speaking GQ. OTOH, the subject matter I’m looking for is likely to be seen by far more qualified answerers here than in IMHO.
I couldn’t really find anything with a quick look, but Itunes U has a huge number of podcasts of all sorts of free college-level lectures. I’m listening to one on the physiology of blood right now.
The paperback Dover Publication of Linus Pauling’s *General Chemistry* is $13.57 at Amazon.com and is in my opinion the best introductory text on general chemistry availble. Pauling did fundamental work in the field of quantum chemistry which gave some more rigorous physical basis for the laws of chemistry and the nature of the chemical bonds; and he did advanced work in biochemistry, studying the protein structure of haemoglobin, the mechanic and action of enzymes and antibodies, and developing a quantum mechanical model for x-ray diffraction that were eventually used to identify the structure of DNA. This knowledge is used to great effect as Pauling doesn’t merely reiterate the seeming arbitrary laws and rules of chemistry, but illustrates them by providing an underlying grounding of what is going on.
I’m somewhat ashamed to say that chemistry was a very difficult subject of me, despite being a mathematically uncomplicated application of rules, because I could never make any sense of why or how things worked, and couldn’t derive anything from any kind of first principles; it seemed entirely emperical, which is in fact how the study of chemistry emerged as a science, but I found it seriously unsatisfying in college until I got into Physical Chemistry and started to learn something about where the forces come from and how bonds actually worked. If I’d started off using Pauling as a text rather than the craptasical standard chem texts that are generally used, I think I would have found the study of chemistry a lot more interesting and engaging.
Stranger - My reaction to my earlier feeble attempts was like yours. Tons of empiricism and 17th century terminology surviving to today when it’s known today to be based on a faulty understanding of the underpinnings. In otherwords, it’s not only wrong, it’s systematically wrong. That helps comprehension a bunch! Where the hell is my v2.0?
Thanks to all; I knew you’d come through with good ideas.
I don’t have it with me but from my recollection it is not mathematically intensive and I don’t believe it requires any prerequisite knowledge above basic algebra. The treatment of quantum mechanical phenomena is purely qualitative, for the purposes of illustrating why something works. It is also presented in a somewhat more conversational tone and most texts, written as if giving a lecture (similar to The Feynman Lectures on Physics). Some of the terminology is out-of-date (it doesn’t use IUPAC nomenclature) and the approach isn’t as obviously systematic, but the way that it builds upon previous knowledge and introduces new concepts in a more qualitatively complete fashion makes it easier to use as a self-text. It’s really not hard reading.
Thanks for replying. Pauling was my father’s chemistry professor at Caltech. I recently made a decision to brush up on the subject and bought a copy of General Chemistry. It’s been sitting on my shelf for a couple of weeks now; I’ve been trying to find time to tackle it.
Either. The reason for the question, is that chemistry is an extremely broad field. As such, your introductory chemistry texts barely touch on anything. Also, in my opinion, they teach a bunch of things that no chemist ever uses anymore. I can’t remember the last time I had to balance an equation. Don’t get me wrong, the concept of balancing equations is important and it’s a good exercise, but it is almost never necessary.
So, if there is something specific you want to learn about, you would be best getting a general chemistry book to reference, but mainly learn from a higher level book in the specific area of interest. For example, if you are interested in solid state chemistry, I’d recommend an inorganic textbook. I would not recommend diving right into a solid state book. I just think that one step up from general chemistry would probably keep you interested.
I recently decided to straighten out my finances, return to my local state university, and attempt to become qualified to work as registered dietician. The minimum requirements for this are a four-year degree in an approved course of study followed by a one-year internship in an approved clinical setting. I’ve completed three full years of college, but despite the fact that I’m in my mid-forties, have never completed an undergraduate degree. I only need to make up a microbiology course and (I think) 2 semesters of general chemistry (expository, not calculus based). I generally like to study ahead for classes that I’m going to take in the future, because I’ve always found that it makes the coursework much easier, and acts as a safety buffer in the event that life’s demands require more time than I had allotted for them. Anyway, I figured the best way to get a handle on introductory chemistry would be to get it straight from the horse’s mouth. Do you have any other recommendations that you think I should pursue? Any input here would be appreciated and investigated.
If your doing it because you want to get ahead in general chemistry course, then a general chemistry book is the only way to go. I would try to find out what book they will be using in the particular class your going to take. With LSLGuy, I was getting the impression that he wanted to learn something specific, but was having trouble getting it all together. Despite what he says about Wikipedia, My wife and I both find it to be remarkably accurate for chemistry. I wouldn’t trust Google.
In posting from a mobile phone so I’m not gonna paste a link but MIT open courseware might nw good they have podcasts and I think open source reading materials
