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intereact!John W. Hill, Ralph H Petrucci, Terry W McCreary, Scott S. Perry
Edition: 4
Retail Price (not our price): $181.33
ISBN: 0131402838
ISBN-13: 9780131402836
Publication Date: 2004-03-12
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 1200
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Product Description
This book retains the relaxed, easy-to-read style of the previous edition to provide integrated coverage of organic and biochemistry, applications, and tools that foster problem-solving skills. More than any other, this text offers balance-in the topics presented, and in its presentation of the subject of chemistry. The authors focus on three mains areas to help readers master the core concepts of general chemistry and enhance their problem-solving skills: problem-solving support and active assessment, conceptual development, and visualization of the molecular behavior of matter. For anyone who wants a relaxed, easy-to-read book that emphasizes major topics in chemistry as well as problem-solving techniques.
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5
1) Good Self Paced Study Reference [Rating: 4 out of 5]
I am currently reading this text book as a chemistry refresher so these concepts are familiar to me. I found this book easier to understand in comparison to my original class text. This book is easy to read and the concepts are clearly defined. This book does not rely heavily on calculations as other books do which makes it easier to read without having to stop and do a calculation every other paragraph. I would recommend this book for students who want a companion book for their class work or for those who need to refresh on general concepts.2) Better than expected [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I bought this book used through Amazon and it arrived in about two weeks. It was surprised to find a cd in it unopened. The condition of the textbook is relatively new with the exception of a bend on the lower right corner of the textbook cover. However, it's hardly noticable especially when one buys something of that quality at less that 50% of the original price on the market.3) Not clear enough [Rating: 2 out of 5]
This book was used in my freshman college chem class. Everyone hated it, including our instructor. I found myself doing a lot of independent study this year, because my instructor was often incomprehensible, and unfortunately, this book most often was just not thorough enough when it came to explanations. Usually, the problems that were explained stepwise, were very simple, so harder problems were difficult to figure out by myself. I am a straight A student, and a pre-med bio major, so I don't consider myself completely stupid, but this book sometimes made me feel as though I was reading a foreign language. Maybe having a better instructor would have made a difference, but since I had to pretty much cover 75% of the course on my own, I had real difficulty understanding the text. On the plus side, the text does cover all the topics required in a college level chemistry course for biology majors.4) An Excellent, Readable Chemistry Text [Rating: 5 out of 5]
_General Chemistry (4th Edition)_ is the book that has taught me most of what I know about chemistry. I just finished my second semester of general chemistry, and I enjoyed reading the chapters very much. In total, I went through well over 700 pages of it with a fine-tooth comb, and I never once had difficulty with the material. Every problem in the book refers back to what you learn in the chapters. It rarely leaves you in the dark (it will tell you when something is beyond the scope of the text). It is not a difficult read if your competency with the English language is satisfactory. Never once did the thought occur to me that the explanations are too difficult to understand. The authors are quite eloquent. Furthermore, there are a prodigious number of information boxes, tables, and graphs scattered throughout the book. There are also quite a few hints, chapter summaries, and lengthy introductions that explain the importance of the material that you are about to learn. Honestly, what more could you ask for?The organization of the material itself is strange at times (like another reviewer noted), but overall it is well done. It would have been best if the organic chemistry concepts were saved until the very end of the book because they tend to distract from the less advanced concepts. In any case, they don't appear too often. The only other problem that I can think of involves the answers to the end-of-the-chapter problems. On several occasions, my professor and I found answers in the back of the book that were simply wrong. Evidently, the authors updated the text and missed a few.However, in the final analysis, I fail to see how a rating less than five stars is appropriate. For the sheer size and quality of _General Chemistry_, the few flaws that it contain are negligible.5) Plentiful of content, but with some unclear points [Rating: 4 out of 5]
General Chemistry by Hill, Petrucci, et. al., is a book that is supposed to be for college students. Mainly, it covers quite well chemistry at college level. It has lots of pictures, graphs and some additional data, which makes this book a great source for people that is accustomed to science. However, people who is not will find this book kind of confusing and tedious to understand, as the authors describe many theories and facts too superficially. For instance, when trying to infer the formula for kinetics of gases, the book does not explain how the formula is gotten: that process could be explained in an easy way using proportions. Also, as I am accustomed to really hard chemistry, I found the challenging problems not as difficult as I expected, which is a little disappointing. Anyway, this book is fair, and it would be good if any student read it with a professor's or another experimented student's help. I give it 4 stars...