Reddit reviews General Chemistry (Dover Books on Chemistry)
We found 9 Reddit comments about General Chemistry (Dover Books on Chemistry). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Dover Publications
My main hobby is reading textbooks, so I decided to go beyond the scope of the question posed. I took a look at what I have on my shelves in order to recommend particularly good or standard books that I think could characterize large portions of an undergraduate degree and perhaps the beginnings of a graduate degree in the main fields that interest me, plus some personal favorites.
Neuroscience: Theoretical Neuroscience is a good book for the field of that name, though it does require background knowledge in neuroscience (for which, as others mentioned, Kandel's text is excellent, not to mention that it alone can cover the majority of an undergraduate degree in neuroscience if corequisite classes such as biology and chemistry are momentarily ignored) and in differential equations. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology were used in my classes on cognition and learning/memory and I enjoyed both; though they tend to choose breadth over depth, all references are research papers and thus one can easily choose to go more in depth in any relevant topics by consulting these books' bibliographies.
General chemistry, organic chemistry/synthesis: I liked Linus Pauling's General Chemistry more than whatever my school gave us for general chemistry. I liked this undergraduate organic chemistry book, though I should say that I have little exposure to other organic chemistry books, and I found Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis to be very informative and useful. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take instrumental/analytical/inorganic/physical chemistry and so have no idea what to recommend there.
Biochemistry: Lehninger is the standard text, though it's rather expensive. I have limited exposure here.
Mathematics: When I was younger (i.e. before having learned calculus), I found the four-volume The World of Mathematics great for introducing me to a lot of new concepts and branches of mathematics and for inspiring interest; I would strongly recommend this collection to anyone interested in mathematics and especially to people considering choosing to major in math as an undergrad. I found the trio of Spivak's Calculus (which Amazon says is now unfortunately out of print), Stewart's Calculus (standard text), and Kline's Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach to be a good combination of rigor, practical application, and physical intuition, respectively, for calculus. My school used Marsden and Hoffman's Elementary Classical Analysis for introductory analysis (which is the field that develops and proves the calculus taught in high school), but I liked Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis (nicknamed "Baby Rudin") better. I haven't worked my way though Munkres' Topology yet, but it's great so far and is often recommended as a standard beginning toplogy text. I haven't found books on differential equations or on linear algebra that I've really liked. I randomly came across Quine's Set Theory and its Logic, which I thought was an excellent introduction to set theory. Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica is a very famous text, but I haven't gotten hold of a copy yet. Lang's Algebra is an excellent abstract algebra textbook, though it's rather sophisticated and I've gotten through only a small portion of it as I don't plan on getting a PhD in that subject.
Computer Science: For artificial intelligence and related areas, Russell and Norvig's Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach's text is a standard and good text, and I also liked Introduction to Information Retrieval (which is available online by chapter and entirely). For processor design, I found Computer Organization and Design to be a good introduction. I don't have any recommendations for specific programming languages as I find self-teaching to be most important there, nor do I know of any data structures books that I found to be memorable (not that I've really looked, given the wealth of information online). Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming is considered to be a gold standard text for algorithms, but I haven't secured a copy yet.
Physics: For basic undergraduate physics (mechanics, e&m, and a smattering of other subjects), I liked Fundamentals of Physics. I liked Rindler's Essential Relativity and Messiah's Quantum Mechanics much better than whatever books my school used. I appreciated the exposition and style of Rindler's text. I understand that some of the later chapters of Messiah's text are now obsolete, but the rest of the book is good enough for you to not need to reference many other books. I have little exposure to books on other areas of physics and am sure that there are many others in this subreddit that can give excellent recommendations.
Other: I liked Early Theories of the Universe to be good light historical reading. I also think that everyone should read Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
/u/another_user_name posted this list a while back. Actual aerospace textbooks are towards the bottom but you'll need a working knowledge of the prereqs first.
Non-core/Pre-reqs:
Mathematics:
Calculus.
1-4) Calculus, Stewart -- This is a very common book and I felt it was ok, but there's mixed opinions about it. Try to get a cheap, used copy.
1-4) Calculus, A New Horizon, Anton -- This is highly valued by many people, but I haven't read it.
1-4) Essential Calculus With Applications, Silverman -- Dover book.
More discussion in this reddit thread.
Linear Algebra
3) Linear Algebra and Its Applications,Lay -- I had this one in school. I think it was decent.
3) Linear Algebra, Shilov -- Dover book.
Differential Equations
4) An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations, Coddington -- Dover book, highly reviewed on Amazon.
G) Partial Differential Equations, Evans
G) Partial Differential Equations For Scientists and Engineers, Farlow
More discussion here.
Numerical Analysis
5) Numerical Analysis, Burden and Faires
Chemistry:
Physics:
2-4) Physics, Cutnel -- This was highly recommended, but I've not read it.
Programming:
Introductory Programming
Programming is becoming unavoidable as an engineering skill. I think Python is a strong introductory language that's got a lot of uses in industry.
Core Curriculum:
Introduction:
Aerodynamics:
Thermodynamics, Heat transfer and Propulsion:
Flight Mechanics, Stability and Control
5+) Flight Stability and Automatic Control, Nelson
5+)[Performance, Stability, Dynamics, and Control of Airplanes, Second Edition](http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Stability-Dynamics-Airplanes-Education/dp/1563475839/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315534435&sr=8-1, Pamadi) -- I gather this is better than Nelson
Engineering Mechanics and Structures:
3-4) Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Hibbeler
6-8) Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, Bruhn -- A good reference, never really used it as a text.
G) Introduction to the Mechanics of a Continuous Medium, Malvern
G) Fracture Mechanics, Anderson
G) Mechanics of Composite Materials, Jones
Electrical Engineering
Design and Optimization
Space Systems
I'd recommend Zumdahl's Chemistry (http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Steven-S-Zumdahl/dp/061852844X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409839212&sr=1-2&keywords=zumdahl) as a good introductory text. It's relatively straightforward for someone approaching the subject outside of class.
I'd ask you to remember also, Chemistry is a messy subject, it just isn't as concise as mathematics by nature. If the text isn't to your taste it is probably a reflection on the haphazard nature of the subject, not the author.
That said, if you want the original gangster, old school text, Pauling's Chemistry is the die that all modern chem texts have been cast from, and it's cheap, printed by Dover in their classic style (http://www.amazon.com/General-Chemistry-Dover-Books/dp/0486656225/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409839362&sr=1-1&keywords=pauling+chemistry)
I taught myself general chemistry in high school using Pauling's General Chemistry text. It's a whopping $11.52 on Amazon right now.
There is an electronic version on iTunes for $20, if your students would prefer that.
Don't be put off with the general chemistry concepts. While they can be interesting, I found chemistry extremely boring until I started learning organic chemistry. Try and mix in some of the early organic videos once you have a good feel for how atoms can come together to form molecules. There is a lot of general concepts to learn but they are important.
Also I hear that Linus Pauling's book is a good place to start if your not going the traditional way.
I just want to second "General Chemistry" by Linus Pauling that /u/kslusherplantman suggested. It's a very readable classic that will do a lot for your understanding. Also, it's like 15 euros: http://www.amazon.de/General-Chemistry-Dover-Books/dp/0486656225/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404581980&sr=8-1&keywords=general+chemistry+pauling
Personally I'm kinda ambivalent on the programming issue. It's useful to differing degrees depending on what you do. That said, unless you get into hardcore synthesis, it's probably going to come up at least a few times in a career. On the other hand, unless you get into computational chemistry, it's not going to come up all that much. If you really want to learn one to get ready, learn python. Most stuff you do will be data processing related outside of more serious computational work, and python should be more than up to any of those tasks. It's also generally marketable if you decide to study something else and easy enough to learn that you won't waste too much time if you don't end up ever using it.
Other than that? Just relax. Graduating from German secondary school (Gymnasium?) you're probably fine mathematically. The rest of it will come as you take your classes. It's great that you're enthusiastic, but right now you probably want to focus on the non-academic changes in your life so that you don't get overwhelmed on that front when school starts.
> I doubt that a psychedelic experience would spark or fuel interest in science for most - more likely the arts, if they used before deciding on their career or path of study.
I often hear psychonauts giving lip service to the sciences, but seldom see them follow through on their proclaimed interest. For me, trying lsd really did reinvigorate my interest in science, most specifically chemistry. The first thing I took away from the experience was how apparent it became that everything I ingest has an effect on the chemistry of my body and subsequently my physical and mental experiences, even if by 2nd or 3rd order effects. I picked up a copy of Linus Pauling's General Chemistry as a starting point, then read How to Live Longer and Feel Better and have since greatly improved the efficacy of my diet in supporting a robust mind and body. In retrospect, revelations that I've had regarding how to feel and live better seem like they should have been obvious... but at times before I had really given things reasonable thought I recall being quite overwhelmed and confused. I suppose one could say that the strength of the acid experience snapped me out of living in the world of ideas and renewed my awareness of the interdependence of my subjective "inner world" and my interaction with the objective "outer world".
for chemistry it really helps to have a conceptual idea of whats going on. Physics really helps. If you fall behind you might be tempted to just blindly memorize, which will make the subject 10x more difficult than it needs to be. Wikipremed.com has amazing chemistry lectures. Linus Pauling's old textbook http://www.amazon.com/General-Chemistry-Dover-Books/dp/0486656225 is bar none the best reference text I've ever come across for a quick and dirty conceptual reference. you really don't need to do a million problems to understand whats going on. For lower div Bio, just memorize.
source; got a bs in biochem
Nobel laureate in one field?? Did you miss the bit about the other Nobel prize?
Francis Crick called him the father of molecular biology: http://articles.latimes.com/1986-03-01/local/me-13101_1_crick
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Textbooks written:
General Chemistry
The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals: An Introduction to Modern Structural Chemistry
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry
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Vitamin C vindication:
The trouble with most vitamin C studies is usually too small a dose. Also the oral vs intravenous thing. You know animals produce grams and grams per day, humans have a genetic deficit. This is my favourite article to explain: http://www.hearttechnology.com/1992-v07n01-p005.pdf
http://scienceblogs.com/gofindyourowndamnlinks/2009/02/18/vitamin-c-and-cancer-has-linus-pauling-b/
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/linus-pauling-vindicated-researchers-claim-rda-for-vitamin-c-is-flawed-71172707.html
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/aug/05/cancer.medicalresearch
http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2008/4/newly-discovered-benefits-of-vitamin-c/Page-01
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Heart disease is scurvy:
http://nutritionreview.org/2013/04/collagen-connection/
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/pdf-files/heart_book.pdf
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Also, here's an interesting read on nukes (remember that peace prize?) and free radicals (that other one was in chemistry): http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2011/6/optimize-your-internal-defenses-against-radiation-exposure/Page-02
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I hope this helps! My personal random-guy-on-the-internet recommendation is several hundred milligrams a few times a day, preferably away from food, increasing dosage during illness.