Think Like a Chemist: Compute Like a Chemist: Learn the Good Stuff and Get Ready for General Chemistry

Think Like a Chemist: Compute Like a Chemist is designed to help prepare you to take a two semester or a three-quarter general chemistry course. It will help you acquire the problem-solving skills and a conceptual understanding of atoms and molecules that are needed for such course. Mastering this book will get you on your way to thinking like a chemist and computing like a chemist. No previous background in chemistry is assumed.

This book is ideal for self-study or it can be used as the textbook in a course. It is also ideal for someone returning to school who wants to refresh their knowledge of chemistry. It has over 500 worked-out examples and end-of-chapter problems for you to solve. Many of these end-of-chapter problems have multiple parts. At the end of the book there is a glossary in which you can look up the definitions of terms. As a study aid, complete worked-out solutions to all the end-of-chapter problems can be found at the back of the book. All the math you need for this book is reviewed, and scientific calculator instructions are given for all operations except simple arithmetic.

This book purposely covers the following limited number of topics in much greater detail than is usual, with no steps left out. As a result, when you take general chemistry you won't get bogged down puzzling over the following topics: atoms and isotopes, atomic weight, scientific notation, significant figures, units and unit conversions, molecules and balancing chemical equations, elements, compounds and mixtures, Avogadro's constant, moles and stoichiometry, percent composition, empirical formulas and molecular formulas, molarity and solution stoichiometry, chemical nomenclature, oxidation numbers, balancing redox equations, gases and the ideal gas law, the simpler aspects of atomic structure, atomic orbitals and the periodic table, chemical bonding and molecular structure, pH and logarithms.

In the author's experience, the above topics are more than can be covered in the typical course that is designed to prepare you to take general chemistry. An instructor will have all the flexibility needed to choose the chapters to be covered in the course. Of course the more topics you master the better prepared you will be for general chemistry.

Except for the cover, there is no color in this book. This is so the book can be affordable to those on a limited budget. The book also contains numerous photos and essays that enrich the discussion of certain topics, and many links to the Web. These will supplement the text with photos, graphics, videos, animations, articles and lectures. They will also allow you to get a deeper understanding of the many topics discussed in the book.