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intereact!John C. Kotz, Paul M. Treichel, Gabriela C. Weaver
Edition: 6
Retail Price (not our price): $207.95
ISBN: 053499766X
ISBN-13: 9780534997663
Publication Date: 2005-01-20
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 1328
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Product Description
CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL REACTIVITY has been revised to help students get to a higher level of understanding of General Chemistry-concepts. This revision includes General ChemistryNow, a new CD-ROM and web-based learning system that focuses on goals, connections, and complete integration with the text.
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5
1) Good high school chem book [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This was a good book to learn chem from for a high school chem class OR use as a supplement to one's high school AP chemistry class. Good clear explanations. In re one of the previous reviewers comments, I do agree that some answers were wrong. The problems given in the book were of average difficulty, perfect for an average chem student.2) First half of book is really good...then it fails miserably [Rating: 2 out of 5]
I had the fabulous experience of using this book at the college of where one of the professors used to teach so it was shoved down my throat how great this book is for two semesters. I have to say it's not too bad halfway through, it uses plenty of interesting diagrams to simplify the material or even add more information that couldn't be put in the text, it has interesting everyday examples of how the concepts fit in, or even easy experiments. One could reasonably get through the first half of the book (up to Chapter 9) without the CD and have a basic understanding of chemistry. The rest of the book goes straight downhill with explanations however. It tends to skip over details. You also need an EXTENSIVE mathematical background to understand even any remote concept past chapter 9, and in the examples showing how to do many of the formulas, steps are skipped leaving you to wonder what is going on. The diagrams get much more involved with way too much detail, or lacking explanation of the detail. The CD is really where the entire package fails though, as the questions for the chapters often do not relate at all, are set up to trick the student because the tiniest detail will be so complex, and when you do get a question wrong, it does not really help you to understand where to look for help or how to fix the problem you made. Most of the problems you're likely to make on the questions are extremely complex mathematical errors. Basically you have to make sure you have a masters in mathematics to even understand some of the examples in the CD, and there's no way to get through it without the help of an actual human being. The book seriously needs a much better editor, there's no need to skip over so many details on a subject that is often very difficult to so many students, especially those lacking a strong math background which is not always required for entry level chemistry.3) review from AP chem student [Rating: 2 out of 5]
Overall, I didn't especially like this book. I used it in high school AP chemistry for an entire year. First of all, the hardcover edition is very heavy and generally cumbersome to use, and i'd definately recommend buying the paperback edition. The book attempts to cover a huge amount of material, which is overwhelming, and it is too much to cover in the course of one academic year. The content of this book was of average quality, but at times confusing. Many of the explanations provided seem to require a background in chemistry--not a good thing if this is the first chem course you have ever taken. But if you've studied chmistry previously, this book should be fine, provided that you understand how to do basic calculations using conversion factors and mole ratios. I was sometimes confused by the more complicated topics. In some cases, the explanations of the topics were fine, but the examples problems went above and beyond the basics, which was confusing. Other times, the explanations were unclear but the examples were fine. Generally, I was able to understand the concept in the end, but at times it was frustrating. The thing that bothered me the most about this book was that some of the most basic formulas were not explicitly stated. The book would show you how to derive the formulas and do a number of complicated calculations, but the formulas themselves are not always right there, in bold print. I'd be sitting there trying to do my homework, and i'd have to go searching back through the text to find the formulas, which was annoying. I'd recommend writing the formulas out seperatly, of using one of those quick-study guide things that fits into a 3-ring binder. Also, beware, some of the answers in the back of the book are incorrect and/or don't match what's in the solutions manual.4) Great book [Rating: 5 out of 5]
To tell you frankly I am very poor in Chemistry. This book has been a great help in understanding facts. The book is wonderfully illustrated with examples and sample problems. This is a better or easier reading book than say Brady Senese (which is also a very good book btw)5) students and penny-pinchers [Rating: 5 out of 5]
the international paperback version of this book is exactly the same as the hardback version and it's considerably less expensive. it comes with the CD-ROM but does NOT provide OWL or online access codes to the web based program- but you can purchase those separately at the thomas learning website... and you'd still be saving money.as for the book, I've only been using it 3 weeks but I like it so far. (much better than chemistry: structure and dynamics which I used last term- blah!). while not for complete beginners the explanations and sample problems are well written and there are lots of homework questions to make sure you really understand the material. (odd answers are in the back of the book). the real selling point for me is that all the pictures are in color (very helpful if you're a visual learner).