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Title: Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change
ISBN: 0073101699
Author:
Martin Silberberg
Publicate Date: 2004-12-21
Publish: 2004-12-21
List Price: $55.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $55.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $17.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $148.60
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| Customer Review: |
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1: disappointment
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU'RE SELF TEACHING!
This is book is required for my general chemistry for science majors class. What a terrible book, I hope that there is a better chemistry text out there.
My first complaint is the large number of mistakes I've found in the book, usually a missing division sign or unit. Without searching I've found at least five in the two months I've been using this book. This is a fourth edition, for the price of the book and this many reprintings I expect a better editing job.
Secondly it is written from the stance that the reader has a science background and often I find myself puzzling over a single problem for up to an hour trying to figure out how the author arrived at the conclusion (And I have a science background). The writers make too many assumptions when writing out an example problem and don't adequately explain their reasoning. Each concept has two example problems, the first has the solution written out. IF you want to know the solution for the other "example" you're going to have to buy the solutions manual for an additional $65.
Third, the solutions manual has mistakes as well, even comparing the answer from the back of the text to the solutions manual the authors are not consistent.
There are not very many simple problems to drill a student with a concept, the authors approach is the exact opposite. Assume the reader "gets it" after a single example problem and then at the end of the chapter increase the difficulty level of the problem ten fold. The problems are good if you want a challenge and want to develop problem solving abilities, but are useless for developing the fundamental concepts that the book is supposed to teach.
I would recommend the Silberberg text to someone who wants a refresher, but if you're new to chemistry, avoid at all costs!
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2: Excellent College-Level Introductory Chemistry Book
Although this book essentially starts from scratch, I'd recommend it to people who have already had high school chemistry. If you haven't had that, you should still do okay, but you may have to spend some extra time and effort since some of the most basic concepts are only skimmed over. They spend much more time on the material that you probably didn't cover in depth in high school chemistry.
First off, I would say that the book's content is excellent. It is an introductory (sort of) textbook, but it covers most of its topics in plenty of depth (at least as much as you would expect from an introductory general chemistry textbook). Also, the book does a great job at explaining the material in a clear fashion and it provides tons of illustrations. It is a very visual text and the author is obviously aware of the fact that visualizing chemical structures is extremely useful in understanding many of the concepts. This is especially useful in the section on covalent bonding.
The book also provides tons of useful exercises at the end of each chapter. The exercises range from very easy to fairly challenging, but they never seem too frustrating. Generally, I'd say that the exercises leaned more towards "easy" and are mostly just straight-forward applications of the material. Note: If you're having trouble, check out the ChemSkill Builder site. The exercises help a lot and it gives you useful feedback.
Whether it's for a class or for self-study, I would pick this book over any other.
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3: great book, great explanations
along with chemistry the central science by brown, this is a great book. i think using both books in tandem is well worth it.
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4: chemistry book
It is a very good text book and it was cheaper than the bookstores at the university.
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5: book condition good
This book is in very good shape. It is a paper back version but the contents are exactly the same as a hardback version. The pages and chapters are the same. The cover of the book has slightly curled edges due to it being used. Other than that, the book is in good condition.
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