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Essential Chemistry offers material that would be appropriate as an introduction to chemistry. I would recommend it for students in education and majors in biology, chemistry, and physics, and other programs requiring only one year of chemistry. The text uses ample color, illustrations, and many photographs to highlight the easy-to-read pages. Italics and boldfacing are used to define terms, which are also collected in a glossary at the end of the text. Figure and photograph captions are prominently located in the margins. There are no other margin notes. Example problems are easily distinguished by their yellow highlighting. All practice exercise problems are answered at the end of a chapter. There is a good distribution of end-of-chapter questions and problems. These are divided in the same order as the chapter sections. Answers to the even-numbered problems are provided. Each chapter opens with the same schlieric pattern and a "short historical vignette or contemporary story that is relevant to the subject of the chapter." Chapters are subdivided and a summary and key words list are provided.
Chapter coverage is traditional. Atomic and molecular structure, nomenclature, periodic table, bonding,
and the states of matter are presented in the first twelve chapters. Chapters 13 and 14 introduce organic and
polymer chemistry. Equilibria (acid-base, solubility, and complex ion) and kinetics are covered in four chapters. The chapter on thermodynamics precedes a chapter on oxidation-reduction reactions and electrochemistry. Coordination compounds and nuclear chemistry finish out the topics. There are no separate chapters on descriptive chemistry or biochemistry; rather the author has integrated these subjects into several of the chapters and problems. A problem-solving approach is used throughout the textbook. The writing style makes the reading pleasant.
Few concepts are not covered in this volume. There is no presentation on molecular orbital theory. Only
first-order kinetics are introduced. Graham's law of diffusion/effusion is not presented. Semiconductors have not been discussed either. Hydronium ion concentration is introduced in the chapter on acid-base chemistry, but the simple hydrogen ion is used in problem solving. Standard U. S. notation for group numbering has been used. The metalloids include polonium and astatine.
Appendix 4 shows a table of the elements (through lawrencium) and the derivation of their names and
symbols as presented by G. P. Dinga, Chemistry, 1968, 41(2), 20-22. Atomic masses (to four significant figures) in this table and throughout the textbook are based on 1961 values. Thus germanium is listed as mass 72.59 instead of 72.61, and the radioactive elements' most stable/common isotope masses are not in agreement with the latest standard values.
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