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Chemistry Books for the Smart?
enzyme asks: "A couple of weeks back,
chrisd asked for
recommendations on computer books. This made we wonder: What are the great chemistry books? I want to know what books the chemistry geeks recommend! What are good books on chemistry - textbooks, popular science...whatever! Anything that an intelligent person without a PhD in chemistry can comprehend. What can I read to help me understand chemistry - my old chemistry textbooks don't really do this."
"Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" or "Dating for Dummies"? You might want to try renting "The Ladies Man" as well.
This is the only guide to chemistry the layman needs.
I have been pwned because my
To gain "understanding" take the sciences in order.
1. Physics
2. Chemistry
3. Biology
Think of it this way:
Without physics, there can be no chemistry. Without chemistry, there is no biology
Well, since chemistry is ultimately just QED (Quantum Electrodynamics), it'd probably be best to read up on Quantum Mechanics first, for completeness. And it's cool too.
;-)
Good PopSci QM books are:
1. QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman
2. In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin
3. Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries by John Gribbin
4. The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
More advanced QM books if you are willing to get into it:
1. Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Ramamurti Shankar
2. The Feynman Lectures (really just concentrate on vol. 3)
3. Quantum Mechanics (2 vol.) by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu, Frank Laloe, and Bernard Dui
I'll leave it to my chemistry friends to fill in the rest from QED on
"This statement is false."
Assumming that you are also interested in computers (based on the fact that this is a Slashdot post):
"Computer Simulation of Liquids" by M. P. Allen, D. J. Tildesley (1997), Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0198553757
It is a bit tricky to get hold of because it is out of print, but it is the only undergraduate chemistry textbook worth its shelfspace.
With respect to understanding chemistry, what aspects interest you? Phys Chem, Organic, Bio, Inorganic, Theoretical? Understanding one won't necessarily help you understand the others. I've been studying chemistry for 10 years now, and I've given up trying to understand much of it...
I read these books as a 9 year old, did all the experiements, and to this day, I still find myself reciting basic principles from them to my colleagues in hospitals, molecular biology labs and other technical settings [a college degree in a related science doesn't fill in all the gaps of a practical understanding of the day-to-day world. An early exposure grounds you in the basics, and gets you seeing/thinking about things in chemical terms]
The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments (Robert Brent, 1960) (not any of the many variant titles) is head and shoulders above any other chemistry book I'd give a bright grade schooler. I hunted down a copy for my own kids, and they loved it.
Chemical Magic (forgot the authors) is one of the best of the many "cool effects to impress your friends" books out there.
Add a good grounding in stoichiometry, energies, entropy, electronegativity, and a few other basic
things, and there's no telling how far it'll take them. I got thrown out of Chemistry in the first month of class (incompetent teacher wanted "her' answers on tests, not the correct ones) and took the Chemistry ACHs with no formal chemistry coursework. I got a 770 out of 800 (top 1%, beating all the advanced chem seniors at our school) and ended up placing out of a year of college chem, simply on the basis of having my eyes opened early. I ended up getting doctorates in Molecular Bio (which is largely chemistry) and Medicine, so those books must not have led me too far astray.
What part of chemistry is it you want to understand?
Once you learn a set of patterns, and get a feel for them (like the relations in the periodic table, or the way the properties of organics change as the carbon backbone changes length) it becomes easier to learn new ones. But if you haven't got an objective in mind, it's difficult to understand why it is worth the effort.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
While I suspect the parent was posted mostly in jest, I think there's actually a lot of truth there.
The 'patterns' in chemistry, more so then in any other intro-level science, are buried three or four layers deep, in ways that no approximation can save. To truly understand chemistry requires immense amounts of quantum mechanics and other physics-layer things. Only once these things are understood deeply can chemistry be "derived".
This is in amazingly stark contrast to Physics, where we can teach people "Newtonian physics" and while it's an approximation, it's a good one for most people. Or math, where we don't all start on elliptic equations.
"Chemistry" is like that; it's like trying to start with elliptic equations, or quantum mechanics, or going straight to the moon instead of building up to it. As a result, it's all memorization, rules of thumb, exceptions to the rules of thumb, exceptions to the exceptions to the exceptions, and then another large mass of memorization, repeat ad naseum. It's actually to the point where I'm not convinced a whole lot of time should be spent on it in high school or college for non-majors, as unlike physics, very little of chemistry will help you understand the real world, except for the fact that it exists and a few basics. (Unless of course you're going to study it. In which case if you know it's a for-majors-only course, I think it might be possible to organize it much better.)
I'd recommend taking an intro chem class at a local junior college. Around here that costs less than a hundred bucks, plus the cost of books. This is important, because you need to learn basic skills that you don't get from reading more advanced (interesting) texts. Things like balancing chemical equations and stoichiometry are foundational and should not be glossed over. You'll also get a nice survey of the different parts of the field.
Taking a class also has another important benefit: access to a lab. Don't discount the value of hands on experience. Chemistry is a lab science and you should spend some time doing wet chemistry. Since most chemistry is too expensive to do at home (a poorly equipped home lab can cost thousands), this is a good cheap way to do it.
Next off, I'd recommend the Chemical Demonstrations series by Bassam Shakhashiri. I can only find the first one at amazon, but I think there are at least four. Most of the reactions that he gives are pretty entertaining and provide interesting ways to learn the concepts. If you can get the chance to do a few of the demos, go for it.
If you're still interested, I'd recommend taking an intro organic class, and whatever analytical chem you can find. The labs that go along with these classes are a blast and the content is more than worthwhile. At the JC level you've probably only blown a few hundred dollars on classes and books, and earned it all back in the time spend doing labs.
Once you've got the concepts down, the newsgroup sci.chem is pretty entertaining. Uncle Al is a kook who seems to a little about every facet of the field. At the very least, you'll get an idea of the real world problems that non academic lab chemists are working on.
By now you'll have found part of the field you enjoy. I liked analytical chem and spectrophotometry. Mainly because you can hack on equipment as well as chemicals. Try building some of your own lab equipment. Making a good balance is a challenge, building a homebrew spectrophotometer is a bit tougher. The amount you can learn from these projects is priceless. If that isn't your cup of tea, try doing simple chemical analysis around your home. pH is pretty easy to work with on a small scale, chlorine in the water might also be doable. Electroplating can also be fun. You'll need to buy some equipment, reagents and standards. Chemists have an old joke about analysis: You can have it cheap, fast and accurate. Pick any two. For messing around at home, start with cheap and prioritize the rest. Look for shortcuts and see how these shortcuts effect the outcome of you're experiment. The fun comes with the process, not the results.
At home I'd stay away from toxics and large quantities of flammable or corrosive materials. If you can't put it down the drain with copious amounts of water, chances are you don't want large quantities of it around. Strong acids and bases demand some respect, particularly HNO3. I got a nasty nitric acid burn in college and my skin was yellow and crusty for weeks. Nitric acid also produces 'smog' in many of it's reactions so ventilation is required. You'll learn the saftey stuff in class. Follow it wherever you are. I've worked in plating shops where acids where stored next to cyanide salts. Not good. Learn how not to kill yourself before working with anything that can kill you.
Chemistry is a bit like computer science. You can learn the theory from a book. Yet until you get your hands dirty and try to apply the principles you're learning, it's nothing but theory. I'm sure everyone else will have some good suggestions for books. My suggestion is to learn the basics in a classroom and practice them in a lab. Once you're there you'll find a wealth of interesting things to read. Get to the point where you know what you're doing, then start on your own projects. It's more fun to actually hack on the stuff than read about it.
I know its dated, but when I'm looking for some chemistry related reading I sometimes like to flip through Linus Pauling's book "General Chemistry." He wrote it with college freshmen in mind in many years ago, but its nice to pick up the Dover reprint and read the explanations straight from one of the giants of chemistry. Many times when my first college chem instructor was trying to explain something (and struggling at it), I'd look it up in Pauling's book to get another angle on it, which sometimes helped quite a bit. A good addition to scientific bookshelfs, especially for people interesting in the development and history of science, rather than just the current theory.
Don't blame me, I get all my opinions from my Ouija board.
Try looking at it backwards. Don't look for the interesting parts of chemistry in physics, rather look for the interesting parts of physics in chemistry. Poring over and memorizing periodical tables and reaction charts may give you an understanding of how chemistry works, but even the broadest concepts of the underlying physics can give you a better appreciation of why it works.
Therein lies the path to deeper understanding of chemistry, Grasshopper. [grin]
It's kind of like the OSI layering standard.
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Each layer building on the other to make itself understood. A thorough grounding in mathematics gives you the basics for delving into physics. Even the most elementary physics can give you a deeper understanding of chemistry, as can an understanding of chemistry give you a deeper appreciation for the intricacies of biology (although my heart goes out to you when you have to deal with the details of organic chem [grin])
Now, there are some very good computer science first-year textbooks (such as "structure and interpretation of computer programs", which can be read again and again, even by professionals). There are a lot of quite good ones (e.g. "Deitel & Deitel"'s books which cover a relatively broad subject in a traditional way, but fails in being all too thick, uses too many examples, and not offering enough insight to be worth reading again). And there are lot's of bad ones ("Dummies guide to...") that covers only what they think you need to know to do X, and hardly have anything to do with CS or SE.
Zumdahl clearly falls in the "Deitel & Deitel" category. It's good, it's thick as a brick. It is aimed at the average student, not the good ones. It has a lot of boring examples and exercises to skip. And it offers no deep insights that will teach you something new, once you've taken chemistry 101. But it gives you a good overview of the subject, spread with a few simple lies to make the material more accessible to people not already having a clue about chemistry.
What we are looking for is the AOCP, SICP, Cormen/Leiserson/Rivest, Norvig, Garey/Johnson, Foley/van Dam/Feiner/Hughes, GoF, etc... Books that clearly have influenced lot's of practicing programmers and computer scientists. Personally, I doubt there are many. Chemistry is still mostly an experimental science---it's just too damn hard to predict anything that happens, unless somebody has already done the experiment before.
I'd greatly recommend Primo Levi's "The Periodic Table", which is not so much about the elements of the table, so much as his life as a working chemist.
For a geek-level work, Jerry March's "Advanced Organic Chemistry" holds the same place in organic chemists' hearts as Bjarne Stroustrup's "C++ Programming Language" holds for programmers. It's a graduate level book, but one which is accessible to anyone with an interest in its subject.
"Well, put a stake in my heart and drag me into sunlight."
Not to argue the finer points of pedagogy with you, but I think you've missed the point.
Anyone can grok the HOW (a reasonably bright chimpanzee can be taught to hammer out HTML, indeed many a chimp makes a fairly good living at it these days!)
The parent of this post was looking to suppliment his(her?) shallow knowledge of chemistry and to gain a deeper understanding of that subject matter.
To gain an understanding of the WHY one must first fully understand the foundation upon which the knowledge is based. The OSI example was perhaps a poor choice (so shoot me, I was trying to reach the geeks in the audience)
You might say "Bugger the whys", but knowing _why_ something works gives you a deeper understanding of _how_ something works. Which I believe was the original intent of this thread. Indeed, you may come up with a better way of how to do something once you understand why that something works the way it does.
Take simple arithmetic for instance. Division to be specific. You can tell a class about the no-no on division by zero. You can state it as simple fact, as if the God of Division parted the heavens one day and a flaming finger came out of the sky, pointed to the first math teacher and spake "THOU SHALT NOT DIVIDE BY ZERO" A lot of kids will be satisfied by that (particularly in the Bible Belt ) but there will be a group of kids who will ask "Why not?" You can show them "why not" by solving division problems using multiplication... e.g.
12 / 4 = z
12 = 4 x z
z = 3
fair enough... so therefore
12 / 0 = z
12 = 0 x z
what number can you multiply by zero to get twelve?
That is the "why" to the prohibition on division by zero.
The "hows" are good at creating things that people want. You can then sell those things to get more research grants to finance more "whys".
It's the "whys" that eventually lead you to building more and better "hows"..... a nice self reinforcing loop, that.
The "whys" are what lead to a better understanding of any subject matter, and indeed our entire universe.
Just think.... if you answer a "why" that no one has ever thought to ask before, you might find yourself sitting on a dais in Stockholm one day!
but check this out:
Caveman Chemistry
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
As someone with a Bachelor's Degree in chemistry, and a long involvement with the Australian and International Chemistry Olympiads, please allow me to make a few humble suggestions.
Physical Chemistry: The bible here is Atkins. I have the third edition, and it can be a little dense at times (actually, a lot of times). If your mathematics and physics education is not up to following thermodynamic proofs that skip several derivation steps, you might find it frustrating. I hear that the more recent editions are somewhat better in this regard, and have also have better pictures.
Inorganic Chemistry: A great book to have for this is Chemistry of the Elements by Greenwood and Earnshaw. This is not a comprehensive coverage of the discipline, but a great reference and an interesting read.
Analytical Chemistry: A somewhat specialised field, but if it floats your boat we have another bible here, or rather several. Vogel has books on qualitative and quantitative analysis that are exceptionally comprehensive.
Organic Chemistry: I really don't have a clear recommendation here. Vogel (above) has a book called "Practical Organic Chemistry" which is probably good, given the quality of his other works.
These books are all great references that I've used in my studies of chemistry, but none of them are for beginners in the field. I suggest that if you don't have a fairly good understanding of chemistry already that you find out what books are used at your local University and buy a few second-hand copies from students there. As a smart chappie, you may find some of it a bit pedestrian, but if you are self-educating then you're free to rip through those sections quickly and spend more time on the more interesting and challenging parts.
Good luck. I hope you find that you enjoy chemistry as much as I do.
Be careful. People in masks cannot be trusted.