(Part 3) Best chemistry books according to redditors
We found 1,043 Reddit comments discussing the best chemistry books. We ranked the 483 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
If you move the decimal over. This is about 1,000 in books...
(If I had to pick a few for 100 bucks: encyclopedia of country living, survival medicine, wilderness medicine, ball preservation, art of fermentation, a few mushroom and foraging books.)
Medical:
Where there is no doctor
Where there is no dentist
Emergency War Surgery
The survival medicine handbook
Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine
Special Operations Medical Handbook
Food Production
Mini Farming
encyclopedia of country living
square foot gardening
Seed Saving
Storey’s Raising Rabbits
Meat Rabbits
Aquaponics Gardening: Step By Step
Storey’s Chicken Book
Storey Dairy Goat
Storey Meat Goat
Storey Ducks
Storey’s Bees
Beekeepers Bible
bio-integrated farm
soil and water engineering
Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
Food Preservation and Cooking
Steve Rinella’s Large Game Processing
Steve Rinella’s Small Game
Ball Home Preservation
Charcuterie
Root Cellaring
Art of Natural Cheesemaking
Mastering Artesian Cheese Making
American Farmstead Cheesemaking
Joe Beef: Surviving Apocalypse
Wild Fermentation
Art of Fermentation
Nose to Tail
Artisan Sourdough
Designing Great Beers
The Joy of Home Distilling
Foraging
Southeast Foraging
Boletes
Mushrooms of Carolinas
Mushrooms of Southeastern United States
Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast
Tech
farm and workshop Welding
ultimate guide: plumbing
ultimate guide: wiring
ultimate guide: home repair
off grid solar
Woodworking
Timberframe Construction
Basic Lathework
How to Run A Lathe
Backyard Foundry
Sand Casting
Practical Casting
The Complete Metalsmith
Gears and Cutting Gears
Hardening Tempering and Heat Treatment
Machinery’s Handbook
How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic
Electronics For Inventors
Basic Science
Chemistry
Organic Chem
Understanding Basic Chemistry Through Problem Solving
Ham Radio
AARL Antenna Book
General Class Manual
Tech Class Manual
MISC
Ray Mears Essential Bushcraft
Contact!
Nuclear War Survival Skills
The Knowledge: How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm
I took a grad course on the history of chemistry and we used The Development of Modern Chemistry by Ihde.
Another comprehensive (but style-wise a little hard to read) is
Crucibles:The Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission.
I have yet to read The Disappearing Spoon, a pop-sci read on the history and stories behind discoveries of elements.
For pleasure:
Undergraduate
Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, The art of writing reasonable organic reaction mechanisms
Graduate
Premed?https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-II-Second-Language/dp/0471738085/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=second+lang+ochem&link_code=qs&qid=1554833065&s=gateway&sr=8-2-spell
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119110661/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Why 4? That should be your first question when you consider the work load. Especially with bio one (if not the) most demanding content based course. If you're struggling with chemistrys math, then this book was useful for the majority of my class.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Organic-Synthesis-Disconnection-Stuart-Warren/dp/0470712368
I think this is the one I have, it's definitely by Warren anyway.
Edit:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Designing-Organic-Syntheses-Programmed-Introduction/dp/0471996122
This is the one I have, you might have to shop around to find it a bit cheaper. I think I ended up with the Indian edition or something.
Cavendish, when working with 'inflammable air' (H2), noted that it reacted similarly (and had similar density) despite being generated by different acids/metal combos.
Priestley identified O2 as 'dephlogistonated air'.
Marine acid air-HCl
Alkaline air-Ammonia
Fixed air-CO2
vitriolic acid air-SO2
They identified the gasses by what they did and how they were made; it's only retroactively do we see that they were working with discrete gasses.
So, simply, they didn't. They were at the stage then that we are now with particle physics. Just smash stuff together and hope the theory matches the experiment (or if you're a theorist, hope it doesn't). This is one of the major critiques of Priestley's work, that he ignored his own results to steadfastly advance the 'phlogiston' theory of everything.
'Development of Modern Chemistry' Aaron J. Idhe (Dover Press).
This is my favorite book on (well...) the development of modern chemistry, if you're interested in the subject, it's an easy read.
The 'Official' (Lister) textbooks for (AQA) A-Level chemistry are not the best, I find them riddled with errors.
PMT has the notes arranged by topic + collated exam questions (and mark schemes) for each one.
I've been using Jim Clark's book for 10 years to help kids (and lots of worked examples)
SciSheets (for £10/year) is amazing value, lots of notes, and thousands of questions and mark schemes, arranged by spec area.
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Something you haven't mentioned, but you may want to think about, is the practical endorsement. You have to complete 12 practical activities, at a registered centre, to get the endorsement. Not sure how it would work with you already having a degree and A-Levels (they had ISAs and EMPAs 6 years ago) but you may struggle without it.
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You can learn chemistry and switch examining boards, I've only taught AQA and Salters (a very long time ago). There are some variations in workings of definitions and specification points, so I would personally choose one and stick with it. Exams are largely all around the same date anyway.
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Good luck!
Edit: grammar
Just don't go into the class with your head down, thinking it will be a walk in the park. I've seen people do that and then are devastated when they're completely lost a month into the class.
Tips:
My lecture used the following textbook:
http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-Marc-Loudon/dp/0981519431
I really like the text. It was very helpful.
We used McQuarrie and Simon and I loved it. Not sure if the fact that I was a ChemE major makes a difference in my preferred textbook, but I thought it was great.
It also has a solution guide that I found to be helpful many times for learning how to approach problems.
My organic chemistry professor wrote the book. He is King Among All Sadists.
Chandler's Intro to Statistical Physics serves well as a first text in that subject. I found it easier to follow than other texts at that level.
UCSD provides an excellent, free ebook for their quantum courses.
I would check out MIT OpenCourseWare. They have some pretty thorough entry-level college stuff, even though their chemistry is not as well developed as their math and physics. A really popular class they have on solid state chemistry: here.
If you're more of a book person, check out Oxtoby for general chemistry (linked on the right). If you're interested in learning about symmetry in chemistry, I would recommend this book. It's a pretty fun and simple introduction to group theory and its applications.
Also, I've been told the UC Davis ChemWiki is a pretty good resource, although I haven't really explored it myself.
The one I'd probably want: chemical manipulation. Stick your finger in a glass of apple juice and make cider. Slap someone you hate and give them third-degree burns.
Limitation: you can only cause a specific reaction if you know how it works. THIS IS YOUR LIFE NOW.
Other ideas:
Also this one is pretty nice since you can work through it from the beginning to the end and afterwards you'll understand retrosynthesis.
You can find pdfs of it on the internet.
A great book I used to start out was 'Molecular Symmetry and Group Theory' by Alan Vincent. It goes through a lot of the symmetry operations but eventually gets to their interpretation in the character tables.
He's probably referring to the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. It's the standard reference.
While not on alchemy itself, The 13th Element, a book about phosphorus, discusses the origins of its discovery in alchemy.
It entirely depends on what you want to do. Everyone here so far is suggesting QM techniques, I use molecular dynamics for free energy simulations and algorithm development. If you are looking to use classical mechanics, i would suggest this and this.
Also a good understanding of Statistical Mechanics is a must, so check out this (google it). If you are looking for a free MD engine GROMACS and NAMD are free and would suggest on NAMD over GROMACS because the code seems to cut a lot of corners, but I use neither.
If this is more along the lines of what you are looking to do, feel free to pm me.
Atkins' Molecules and Why Chemical Reactions Happen? are great reads, The latter requires A2 knowledge at least, but it's an interesting read, it introduces a few first year topics but you should be fine anyway. Atkins' Molecules is a much easier read and written so well, there's some pretty interesting molecules you'll encounter in the book as well.
There's also this textbook called A-level Chemistry by E.N. Ramsden, this textbook is pretty old most school libraries have it (my secondary school and 6th form both had it). I used it during A2 as a reference book and it has some really good questions if you want a proper challenge, only problem is that it doesn't have all the answers to the questions so you will have to go to your teacher (this is good anyway, you'll get a better UCAS ref) for the answers.
UC irvine free lectures
Khan academy chemistry
open textbook at libretext
And if you feel like a structured efficient approach, i found orgo chem by klien to be good. The only fluff is useful fluff, like explaining how pH can affect drugs in our bodies; how chemists need to design drugs to account for that.
NileRed, Cody's lab, and periodic videos seem to be popular, which are all on youtube.
Introduction to Spectroscopy is an amazing reference. It is not as useful in first year, but in upper years it has an extraordinary amount of information on IR, UV, NMR and mass spec, there might very well be more in there, but that is what I have used it for.
This is a great list but for mathematics, I would add sections on geometry somewhere before calculus and maybe also discrete math. Use the UCSMP Precalculus books for sets/logic, basic algebra, trigonometry, and discrete math. Alternatively, use Paul's Online Math Notes to learn everything you want about math.
If you can afford it, you'll benefit tremendously by trying to follow the Art of Problem Solving curriculum located under "Using AoPS as a Primary Curriculum". Start from prealgebra and work your way up from there. Use [Khan Academy] as mentioned previously (https://www.khanacademy.org) to supplement. Optional: Read Art of Problem Solving, Volumes 1 and 2. Only do this if you want to get really good at math
When you're ready to move on from math, you'll need the links to The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volumes I-III to complete your physics education. Try to find a copy of Schaum's Outline of Physics for Engineering and Science in a bookstore or read an old edition online. If you decided not to do calculus, use the Outlines of College Physics instead. Do as many problems as you can to truly solidify your physics knowledge. After doing physics, find a good chemistry textbook and read the entire thing. If you want to learn even more advanced chemistry, read this. The key to learning math and science is to do lot of problems.
I wrote this as a note to myself as well. But I hope it can help you too. If you can pirate textbooks, do it. Try to not move on to one science without being well established in the field listed before it. Good luck and feel free to PM me if you want to converse with someone who is trying to follow a similar path as the one listed here.
edit: typo
Honestly, if you are willing to spend a bit of money, David Klein's Organic Chemistry as a Second Language is concise, fun to read, and gives a deep understanding of orgo. I highly recommend it, and it was a huge help to me when I took it. You may want to start with the first and buy the second if the first appeals to you.
Semester 1
Semester 2
Just pick up an older edition of a well-reviewed genchem text. For example, the sub suggests the seventh edition of Principles of Modern Chemistry, available for under $40, but the sixth is available for is little as $5. If you want something free and easy, I believe khanacademy usually gets reviewed pretty well, although I prefer find it to be too slow, especially for review.
Why Chemical Reactions Happen by Keeler and Wothers is a very readable introduction to the theory underlying all of chemistry: Molecular Orbital Theory. I read it before starting my undergrad, and its what swayed me to chemistry over physics! All the fundamental theories of chemistry are rooted in quantum mechanics, using some really neat concepts! Well worth a read if you're familiar with high school chemistry!
You need to develop your internal analytical tools as well as learn how to use computer tools to help speed any analysis you take on.
Start with Statistics for Dummies (don't be put off by the name as these books tend to be great for distilling information in an easy to read and concise manner).
Learn how to use software. Excel is the main workhorse for many businesses and other organizations. R is a free programming language which provides graphics and statistical analysis capabilities. Its steep learning curve is a hindrance to many people though. If you have an account with your university and if they have site licenses then you may be able to download software such as SAS, JMP, SPSS, etc. for free. Personally I load my data into an SQL based database and I use Tableau Software to do visualizations very quickly and easily. Tableau is prohibitively expensive for many people though.
Finally, find data that is interesting to you. Find data that you are naturally curious about. This will make it easier for you to come up with theses that you wish to prove.
Some other interesting reads:
http://edwardtufte.com
http://perceptualedge.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_analysis
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 92nd Edition
The thermal energy and entropy components can be fairly large, however if you're looking at quantities that involve differencing the free energies I've found a lot of the times they cancel fairly well (for reactions in particular). Note this is anecdotal, you should still redo them but just bear in mind those results you're building on may not be so different to what you get from doing it properly. I remember finding this doc really useful. Gaussian whitepapers are usually pretty good in my experience.
Solvation is a whole other pain (can completely change a reaction free energy surface) and I would recommend that at any point that you can compare a computed free energy to an experimental value you do so. I just had to scrap a few calculations because I didn't bother to look up the correct solvation free energy for hydroxide.
Edit: I learned from This book which will almost definitely be in your university library.
Ken Dill has the easiest to follow stat mech book I have encountered. McQuarrie has lots of good problems to work through. David Chandler is the shortest, and simultaneously most brilliant and difficult work on the subject I have read. His brief review of thermodynamics in the first couple chapters is fantastic if you only have a day or two to get back on the horse.
Oooh! VX!
I read about this stuff a decade ago in a decadent little book called The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire and Phosphorous.
8/10, 11/10 with rice.
McQuarrie's Stat. Mech. text would likely serve you well...
The Development of Modern Chemistry by Aaron Ihde
https://www.amazon.com/Development-Modern-Chemistry-Dover-Books/dp/0486642356
It's not necessarily harder than general chemistry, it is just a lot different. More about recognizing patterns and making predictions, with almost nothing involving numerical problems. My suggestion is to read and do the problems in the book "Pushing Electrons" (https://www.amazon.com/Pushing-Electrons-Daniel-P-Weeks/dp/1133951880/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) before starting organic chemistry. The basics of organic chemistry are not really covered in UH general chemistry, so this book will help you get into the right mindset for organic chemistry before you start.
took pchem else where but honestly it's a different beast.
I loved it but if you're not proficient in calc try to take a biophysical chem class instead or else it's going to be miserable.
I've been told we use McQurrie's (which is good because it's the best Pchem textbook) here. so if you take it Buy McQurrie's answer manual it's expensive for a non-required book but it'll be worth it.
ORGANIC CHEM CUSTOM LL W/E-BOOK
Author KLEIN
Edition 3RD 17
Published Date 2017
ISBN 9781119458104
Publisher WILEY
Maybe this? (Check the ISBN first. I took orgo a few years ago, but the book store gives the above info for 351 this semester.)
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-3rd-David-Klein-ebook/dp/B01NCJQ68U/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505200382&sr=1-3&keywords=Wiley+Organic+3rd
Edit: Can get the syllabus if you still need. If you are tutoring a student or through the tutorial center, you should have access though, with their permission.
I believe some agencies actually do classify it as a chemical weapon. Source Of course, I suppose you could technically call anything a chemical weapon since they're all ultimately made of chemicals in some form.
White phosphorus is some nasty stuff too. I've read horror stories about its use in WWII, including incidents where soldiers who got it on them shot themselves instead of going through the pain. Pretty much nothing will stop it from burning and, even if you survive the burning, there's a decent chance it'll poison you. Source and very good read too. Actually, given that part, I can see how you could make that case that it's a chemical weapon.
Edited: Needed some punctuation.
No. I've been out of school for 11 years. The professor I knew that taught it this way did it using the same book I used. He just handed out bunches and bunches of equation worksheets. I remember I tried to tutor someone in his class, and I had to tell them I was useless.
I searched Amazon and saw this book: http://www.amazon.com/Pushing-Electrons-Daniel-P-Weeks/dp/1133951880
...but I haven't seen it myself.
Highly recommend the Why Chemical Reactions Happen book.. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0199249733/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_muitDbJVEXVQ4
Found this useful during my undergrad
Also, for beginning a solid understanding of food chemistry, I recomend starting with chemistry. Find a copy of this book. https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Principles-7th-Steven-Zumdahl/dp/1111580650 and its solution manual (its not hard to get the PDFs online cough cough libgen cough cough). Go through the chapters and do the problems until you actually understand how the solution works. I have a syllabus for the book I can send you if you'd like. All in all, it should take about 3 months if you give it 2-3 hours 4 days a week. Then you'll be able understand chemistry speak and diagrams with a certain authority.
also Chandler and Hill which are pretty cheap
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Modern-Statistical-Mechanics-Chandler/dp/0195042778
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Statistical-Thermodynamics-Dover-Physics/dp/0486652424/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VYM9N447YW74GGJ4ZEBE
This is the one used in CHEM 202 and 204:
https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Principles-7th-Steven-Zumdahl/dp/1111580650
The study guide and answer book is kind of a waste though; the answer guide only has odds, but the CLC in Davenport has the answer book with all the answers.
If you have Decoste for 202, you'll almost certainly use it
Honestly my favorite text book would have to be Loudon's. It seems to cover more then most other texts and contains numerous helpful diagrams/tables. The questions are all great as well. Linky
This book is fantastic.
I have this book
I‘m studying pharmaceutical sciences and recommend the Bible of organic chemistry:
Organic Chemistry by Volhard
Basically, all sorts of things happen because the atoms, molecules, or whatever, want to be stable, i.e to achieve lowest energy. Forming ions, i.e. removing or adding electrons to the atom, is a way for atoms to achieve lowest energy (stable).
The spdf orbitals do come into play. An atom's electronic configuration can be described with its shells, orbitals, and the number of electrons in the orbitals. For example, iron's configuration is 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^6 4s^2 . The electrons has another property, its spin. Spin is an intrinsic form of angular momentum, thus carries energy. Electron can spin two way (that is the up and down arrow you see in orbitals). Pauli exclusion principle says that there cannot be two electrons in a single orbital that have the same spin (since the momemtum is the same direction, it will add up and increase energy). For the similar reason, the pairings of all electrons in a degenerate orbital (i.e. 2p, 3p, 3d, etc. orbitals with the same energy) decreases the energy (cancelled out spins in a way). However, the pairing of electron also increases energy because it decreases the distance between electrons. So, the degenerate orbitals is more stable when it is half filled or fully filled (the latter is more stable). The orbital can be more stable: just don't have the orbital. The energy of an atom is lowered when a specific set of degenerate atomic orbitals is empty, fully filled, or half filled.
Now consider the iron atom again. When it ionizes, it will want to be mroe stable. An obvious option is to take off 4s orbital entirely, losing 2 electrons, thus creating Fe^2+ . Now the ion's configuration is 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^6 . To become more stable, we can make 3d orbitals (take ten electrons at most) half-filled to 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^5 . Compared to the neutral atom, the ion loses three electrons, making it Fe^3+ . But the energy difference between Fe^2+ and Fe^3+ is not that big. External energy and chemical environment can convert them to each other. For example, oxidizing agents, a category of chemicals that love to rob electrons from others, can make Fe^2+ become Fe^3+ by accepting an electron from Fe^2+ .
Are they structurally different? Yes, other than the configuration difference (I think it can count as structure), the atomic radius is different. Fe^3+ is smaller because it has fewer electrons obviously, meaning less repulision between them, and thus stronger attraction to the nucleus.
Textbooks include the one given in the sidebar by Oxtoby and Chang's one. You may be able to find these books in your local post-secondary library. The edition doesn't matter. Oxtoby is a little hard, but it is good for in depth explanation. Chang is great for AP and other high school studnets.
Ugh, this should help you out.
http://www.amazon.com/Statistics-Dummies-Deborah-Rumsey/dp/0764554239/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211298519&sr=8-1
Need the Testbank. Will pay $75 in bitcoin/ethereum/litecoin or other payment method of your choice.
Organic Chemistry, 3rd Edition by David Klein
ISBN-13: 978-1119110477
ISBN-10: 1119110475
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-3rd-David-Klein-ebook/dp/B01NCJQ68U
You might find inorganic is more to your taste. Or you might like analytical chemistry is more fun. There is a lot that you'll see in the next semester that will make the stuff from this one just click better.
Over winter break get your paws on Organic Chemistry as a Second Language and Pushing Electrons and let those help you with the stuff you aren't solid on yet. Then do problems until you are heartily sick of them and you will absolutely ace the ACS exam at the end of Ochem 2.
The CRC book of math tables and formulae could be helpful.
And likewise the CRC Handbook of Chemistry And Physics.
Organic Chemistry by John McMurray is very very good if you haven't got it already, I had this before I got Clayden and I found it a little easier when starting off.
Also, if you feel like a challenge a great question book to get is: Designing Organic Synthesis by Stuart Warren. It's a question text book that teaches you how to break down large molecules into easily synthesizable subunits and is invaluble for any synthetic course.
Hi, don't mean to bug you, but could you point me in the right direction? I've been looking for this book that was published in '97, but I can't find it on any of the popular torrent sites. Thanks!
these are some good books; when i was an undergrad the second semester one was really helpful; both as a second introduction of the material and as a good reference
http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-Second-Language-Translating/dp/0470129298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310452151&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-II-Second-Language/dp/0471738085/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310452151&sr=8-2
This is the book we're using in my applied spectroscopy course right now. It seems pretty helpful.