Also in the section on aqueous reactions, gas formation reactions are not included as a class of reactions or a subclass of acid-base reactions , although there is one example in the chapter of a gas formation reaction. End of chapter exercise 7. Tetraphosphorus decoxide is given in the problem.
Figure 8. The topics in general chemistry are well-established so the main content of the book will continue to be relevant and have good longevity. One positive feature of the book is the inclusion of connections to other sciences, and connections to technology and the real world.
These are current and up-to-date now, but as technology advances and applications change or new applications are found, this is the part of the book that would benefit the most from updating. Since these are set out in boxes within the text, the updating should be fairly easy.
The book also includes a "Portrait of a Chemist" feature. As time goes on, new portraits could be introduced. Again, because these are set out in boxes, it is easy to find and update them.
One section that could use a slight expansion of content to be more relevant is Molecular Orbital Theory. The book does not cover anything beyond diatomic molecules, not even with a mention or a figure.
The book is a derivative of openstax Chemistry, by three of the same authors, which has a more traditional order of topic coverage. The authors have paid some attention to making the reordering of topics comprehensible, adding text or bringing sections such as the mole concept in early enough to be of use and not confuse the students with concepts that haven't yet been introduced.
Despite that, I felt that the topics of electronic structure, chemical formulas, Lewis structures, and bonding theories, showed that they were "out of order". What I mean by that is that they were not written with the level of detail and pedagogy in which early chapters in chemistry books are usually written. They assumed that students were already "up to speed" in their learning process, so to speak.
For instance, I think that the relationship of the quantum numbers to the structure of the periodic table could be made more explicit, as could the writing of electron configurations, specifically those of ions.
It was here in this section that the reordering showed up in vocabulary--the terms alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halogens, periods and groups are used in this section, but the section of the text in which those terms are specifically introduced and defined comes later in the book. I suggest that the section on the Periodic Table be moved much earlier in the book--definitely before electronic structure of atoms, but could even come in Chapter 2 right after Atomic Structure and Symbolism.
Another place that I felt the book "got ahead of itself" because of reordering of topics was in Chapter 4, which shows a potential energy curve for the bonding of two hydrogen atoms, but it doesn't explain what 0 potential energy is defined as, or what negative potential energy means.
In fact, energy hasn't been addressed much yet at that point for instance, no discussion yet of potential energy vs. There is a section on Energy Basics in the Thermochemistry chapter chapter 9. I also was not thrilled with the reference in Chapter 3 in the section on light emission and absorption to an endothermic process absorbing light and an exothermic process emitting light.
This is the FIRST mention of endothermic and exothermic in the book, and to link it with light at this stage is not helpful. Along those same lines, electron affinity is defined so that it's actually Delta U or Delta H, so the EA of Cl is negative, in contrast to other books where EA is the energy released when an atom gains an electron. This may create confusion for those who have had chemistry before.
And how to indicate the trend with arrows? Increasing electron affinity means decreasing value of EA on a number line, anyway. The discussion of the deBroglie wavelength is ambiguous because of the symbols used. It talks about lambda sorry, no Greek letters in this text box meaning something different than it does in light equations, but then talks about v velocity vs.
In the online version, the velocity symbol is inconsistent from usage to usage--sometimes it's clearly an italic v and sometimes it could be a nu. In the pdf, v and nu look the same in all usages. So are the authors talking about the lambda symbols being the same, but meaning something different, or are they talking about v and nu? Another area where some additional attention to topic order would help is in Formula Mass and the Mole Concept, which is in Chapter 6 Composition of Substances and Solutions.
This section is very explicit and should come much earlier in the book. It could be in Chapter 2 along with Chemical Formulas and where the mole concept is first introduced. The section on Lewis structures was comprehensive, covering basic examples and the important exceptions. However, in the presentation, the authors are working through four examples simultaneously.
I think this would be hard to follow for a student who is just learning to draw Lewis structures. I believe it would be better to do those examples individually, highlighting the differences in each one from a simple one--for instance, what do you do when there's a charge on the species? The discussion of molecular polarity centers on dipole moments and vector cancellation.
This is difficult to envision in a trigonal planar and tetrahedral geometry and there was no figure to help with that. There was also no good criteria mentioned for how to decide if a molecule is too symmetrical to be polar. I tell students if the molecule has at least one polar bond and has a definite, unique top, then it's polar.
In the Properties of Polar Molecules, it mentions alignment in an electric field and a brief mention too early? This would be a perfect place to do an early introduction of the concept of intermolecular forces at least dipole-dipole to say that polar molecules have higher boiling points than nonpolar molecules of the same size. I did not like the electronegativity difference criteria that the book uses. Their criteria of pure covalent having an electronegativity difference of less than 0. And their cutoff for polar covalent at the high end of 1.
But a higher cutoff of 1. One thing that I think would aid clarity throughout the book is more use of bold and italics to emphasize important ideas or statements. Usually only terms are bold.
One example that I noticed is the idea that the sum of the formal charges must be equal to the charge on the species. This was buried in a paragraph and not emphasized in any way. It would be easy for a student to miss this important idea. In general, the layout made it easy to miss a short paragraph sandwiched in between examples.
A little more white space to set off the text would be helpful. I did feel that some topics were done with good clarity. I appreciated the figures of all of the s, p, d and f orbitals. Most general chemistry texts do not include the f orbitals in figures. I also thought the authors did a good job of making an early distinction between ionic and covalent bonds. The section on nomenclature was good and corresponds well to the way I approach nomenclature.
I feel that nomenclature is absolutely foundational to the rest of chemistry, so I was pleased to see the authors spend considerable space on it and yet approach it in a systematic way.
I would like to see important binary acid exceptions such as hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen azide mentioned. The hybridization section stated plainly that hybridization was devised to rationalize experimentally observed molecular geometries--something I heavily emphasize--and makes it fairly plain that the hybridization goes with the VSEPR geometry in a one-to-one correspondence. It does not use the term "promotion", but rather that the electrons distribute themselves among the hybrid and unhybridized orbitals.
There were good figures--perhaps not as fancy as in some commercial texts, but clear enough. I was pleased to see the "stoichiometry map" in the Reaction Stoichiometry chapter. I use that concept myself, and by the end of the first semester, have it filled in with heat and volume of gas as well as the quantities shown in their map entities, grams, moles, volume of solution.
Some of my comments in Clarity relate to this. Because the book was not written from scratch to be atoms first, but rather was derived from a traditional topic order text, there are some issues with vocabulary showing up too early, before it has been defined such as some column names in the periodic table, or a potential energy curve before potential energy has really been discussed at all. There seem to be some minor notation differences between the online book and the pdf, particularly with velocity and nu.
I have already mentioned some questionable use of endothermic and exothermic as it relates to the absorption and emission of light.
I have never seen this in any other book. The modularity of this book is quite good. Although some of the sections are longer than others, this is inherent in the topic being covered, or the authors have provided a lot of examples, which is all to the good for students. I found the online book easiest to find a specific subsection I was looking for, but it only displays just that subsection, so for scanning through a chapter, the pdf is easier to work with.
Chemistry is not a subject that can completely avoid self-referencing, because the material builds on itself as the chapters progress, so references to and connections to earlier topics are helpful, not to be avoided. Likewise, the occasional "foreshadowing" can be helpful. For example, it's useful to know why we need to learn how to draw Lewis structures--so that we can predict the shape and polarity of the molecule, which in turn has implications for its physical and chemical properties.
I have addressed this most in Clarity. There are some problems with logical progression of ideas and terminology due to this being a derivative of a traditional-order text. The authors did make a good-faith attempt to present the material in an atoms first approach that students can follow and learn from.
There are simply still improvements to be made. I have made several suggestions for some topics that can be moved earlier to help with this.
I also would like to see some sort of author's notes about why they chose the order of presentation of topics in the second semester portion of the book--why thermodynamics before equilibrium? Why kinetics after electrochemistry? Some books do kinetics as a lead-in to equilibrium, since the typical definition of equilibrium is that the rate of the forward reaction equals the rate of the reverse reaction.
As mentioned above, the online version is good for quickly getting to a section of the book you want to find, no matter where you are in the book currently. In the pdf version, you have to scroll all the way up to the table of contents to link to a new section. The pdf is easier to scroll through a complete chapter though, and the pdf has all the examples numbered, the figures and tables numbered sequentially, and the end of chapter exercises all numbered.
The online version has none of the those numbers, but the appropriate end of chapter exercises are at the end of each subsection. I ran into several issues with the interface. In Chapter 1, the plasma video did not play on either iPad online version or PC online or pdf. If you fail to do this as I did many times , when you go back to the pdf you are at the very beginning instead of where you left off.
The online version does not have Example numbers or Exercise numbers that the pdf has. Also the figure numbers do not correspond between the online version and the pdf version. How can the online version be used for teaching--how can I tell students which exercises are assigned or which examples to look at? Chapter titles are NOT on the first page in the online version, only the Chapter number and "Introduction". You have to go to the Table of Contents to see what the name of the chapter is.
Also, on that first screen in the pdf version, there is a "By the end of this section, you will be able to This is collapsed into "Summary" in the online version. Why not display it? In the online version on iPad at least , when the Table of Contents is used to move to a section, the title of the displayed section goes vertical and does not scale to the width of the frame the way the text does. You have to collapse the Table of Contents in order to be able to read the title of the section well.
When the pdf is first loading, you cannot hotlink in the Table of Contents to sections later in the document until the pdf gets done loading.
Clicking on a link too far down in the Table of Contents too early in the loading process takes you back to the front of the document. The link to Appendix B in Chapter 1, Measurements section, goes to the preface in the online version on iPad always, or goes to the front of the pdf document if the pdf has not fully loaded. In the online version, a box came up that told me a newer version was available, and when I clicked on it, it switched me over to openstax Chemistry not Chemistry Atoms First!
The portraits of a chemist do include some women. I admit I was not able to review all of them, but based on reviews of the original openstax Chemistry, of which this is a derivative, gender diversity seems to be all the diversity that is shown. The book is very US centric and includes some strange examples, such as mentioning by name a Lambourgini particular sports car in an example problem. Are the authors getting "product placement' gigs?
On a more serious note, the colors used on the periodic table are quite pale and I suspect students who are color blind would not be able to distinguish the difference between metalloids and non-metals, in particular, and seeing the difference between metals and non-metals may be tough as well. I also noticed that one figure showed meat on a grill as an example of a chemical reaction students might have seen and a later figure showed and mentioned a cheeseburger.
International students who don't eat beef or other meats for religious reasons might not appreciate these kinds of examples being used when there are others available that are not food-related.
One of the special topics boxes is on Climate Change, which may generate some discussion in class. That would be a good opportunity to talk about Evidence for hypotheses. Too often, college chemistry gets presented as "here's what we know from the last years" and there's nothing to discuss.
I am currently teaching from an atoms first commercial book and I really hoped to find that this book would be a good substitute I could recommend to my colleagues. Although there are some quite strong points of the book and some parts are better than our commercial book, at this time December, , however, it has too many errors and inconsistencies in approach that it is not an improvement over what we are currently using, even to be free to the students.
If I have time over the summer, I can edit it myself. I hope, however, that the authors will take another look at it and improve it. The text covers all the typical material in an introductory chemistry text. It is completely useful and relevant to a freshman level general chemistry course. I would like to see a chapter on green chemistry and perhaps a bit more biologically I would like to see a chapter on green chemistry and perhaps a bit more biologically relevant chemistry although that may be outside the scope of the book.
The text is nicely updated and goes to great lengths to have relevant examples for general chemistry students. I would think that more examples and a longer text would help. However, it would be better to look at these terms relevant to measurements.
The text actually covers a great deal of material and is updated compared to some other texts I have seen. Overall the text is clearly explained. The section on dimensional analysis is both relevant and quite clear and I'm glad to see it written and explained so well.
The example problems that are presented are done at a very basic and easily understood level. I think that it would be relevant even as a supplemental text to recommend for struggling students. The text is quite consistent.
It's kept at a constant level. A few of the pictures are lower resolution than the others though. The consistent use of equations throughout is nice as well. Some texts try to exclude mathematics which is a huge mistake in my opinion. I think I like that thermodynamics is spaced out throughout the book and introduced in between several chapters. At first that seems a little disconcerting, but it's done in a nice way and probably allows the student to learn a little thermo at a time instead of all at once in a single chapter.
This seems sufficient but is typical for introductory chemistry texts. I would like to see links between sections allowing an interested reader to be able to jump to other relevant portions of the text.
There are a few chapters that seem out of order compared to "classic" chemistry texts but I think the modularity here is a distinct asset. It follows the classical bottom-up approach to chemistry and I find that reassuring in a way. Taken with the large modularity of the various sections, I think it would be a good book for an intro class to consider.
Chapter 3 on waves, radiation, the Bohr model, etc. I didn't expect to see it emphasized early like that. However, it's written at an appropriate level for beginning chemists. I also didn't expect to see the chapter on the gas laws placed so far after descriptions of chemical bonding. In such a modular text it doesn't particularly matter and it may make more sense to talk about, say, molecular orbital theory before Boyle's law. It's also a little strange that chemical equilibria comes so much later than stoichiometry and balancing equations.
I think it may work better this way though. It's just different than the layout of chemistry texts with which I'm familiar. As mentioned in general comments, the text could benefit somewhat from more example problems and would benefit greatly from more problem sets and exercises.
I liked the online connectivity to the "Build A Molecule" website. It's a little weird that the text will include "Table" and "Figure" without a table or figure number. The fact that it's a hyperlink to the relevant item is great, but it's a little strange to read that way. If anything, I would like to see an online text have a great deal more hyperlinks to content.
This seems like a great choice for many English speaking countries but seems primarily aimed at students in US institutions. A lot of the sections seem short.
The text, especially in it's nicely modular format, would benefit from longer sections. Critically, there would be a vast improvement by supplying many more problems and worked examples. The problems supplied are nice, comprehensive and detailed. And there are, in fact, a fairly large amount of them and I realize it may take away from space for regular material. However, a lot more of them would be extremely useful. It helps instructors write exams and more importantly, it lets students have a vast amount of problems to work for practice.
Maybe if there was an online only component that included an expansion on the problem sets. Many of the figures are well done and at a high quality.
I think this textbook covers all areas and ideas of the subject taught in the first two semesters of a college-level general chemistry course. At the end of each chapter there is a glossary as well as key equations to help the students organize At the end of each chapter there is a glossary as well as key equations to help the students organize information.
The book seems to be error-free and accurate upon basic review and skimming. I did not complete every end-of-chapter question nor read every word. I like that the periodic table is updated with the more recent elements that have become official above atomic number I like the way the text is written to be approachable for a wide variety of students.
I think balancing chemical reactions could be done in a clearer way, as it is hard to tell which numbers are the co-efficients. Perhaps formatting them differently bold would help student identify during the learning phase. The same goes, for example, balancing redox equations in Chapter 16 versus Chapter 7. In Chapter 16, it could be laid out a little more clearly. I really like the diagram on page that shows how moles are related to a variety of stoichiometric quantities.
Upon general review and skimming, I think the terminology is internally consistent. I feel that the formatting and delivery of step-wise instructions could be improved. I would add numbers or bullet points instead of having important directions embedded in paragraphs.
This could make it hard for students who are mastering English as a secondary language. One example I see is that there could be more clarify in connecting previous topics.
For example, balancing redox reactions in Chapter 16 could have either copy and pasted the same procedure from Chapter 7, with the additional new rules in Chapter This would've added more consistency and clarity. I can see how chunks can be re-organized, which makes it nice. Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure. States of Matter: Gases and Liquids. Heat capacity and specific heat capacity, Criteria for equilibrium. Organic Chemistry: Some basic Principles and Techniques.
Group 1 and Group 2 Elements General introduction, diagonal relationship, electronic configuration, trends in chemical reactivity with oxygen, occurrence, water, anomalous properties of the first element of each group, hydrogen and halogens, trends in the variation of properties, uses.
General Introduction to p -Block Elements Group 13 Elements: General introduction, Reactions with acids and alkalies, uses, electronic configuration, occurrence, some important compounds: Borax, Boric acid, Boron Hydrides, Aluminium, variation of properties, anomalous properties of first element of the group, oxidation states, trends in chemical reactivity, Boron - physical and chemical properties.
Classification of Hydrocarbons Aliphatic Hydrocarbons: Alkanes - Nomenclature, chemical reactions, isomerism, combustion and pyrolysis, conformation, physical properties. Best Schools in Karnataka Best Schools in Maharashtra Best Schools in Uttar Pradesh Best Schools in Delhi Best Schools in Haryana Best Schools in New Delhi Best Schools in Pune Best Schools in Mumbai Best Schools in Chennai Best Schools in Bangalore Best Boys Schools in India Best Girls Schools in India Best Co-ed Schools in India Best Day Schools in India Langley today serves as Professor of Chemistry.
His areas of specialization are solid state chemistry, synthetic inorganic chemistry, fluorine chemistry, and chemical education. Edward J. He joined the University of Connecticut in as a lecturer and currently teaches general and inorganic chemistry; his background includes having worked as a network engineer in both corporate and university settings, and he has served as Director of Academic Computing at New Haven University.
He currently teaches a three-semester, introductory chemistry sequence at UConn and is involved with training and coordinating teaching assistants. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book is Creative Commons Attribution License 4. Skip to Content Go to accessibility page. Chemistry: Atoms First 2e Preface. My highlights. Table of contents. Answer Key. Errata All OpenStax textbooks undergo a rigorous review process.
Format You can access this textbook for free in web view or PDF through openstax. Coverage and scope In Chemistry: Atoms First 2e , we strive to make chemistry, as a discipline, interesting and accessible to students.
Changes to the second edition OpenStax only undertakes second editions when significant modifications to the text are necessary. In the case of Chemistry: Atoms First 2e , user feedback indicated that we needed to focus on a few key areas, which we have done in the following ways: Content revisions for clarity and accuracy. The revision plan varied by chapter based on need. About five chapters were extensively rewritten and another twelve chapters were substantially revised to improve the readability and clarity of the narrative.
The easiest way to navigate the site is to use the Menu at the top of our site or the Footer Links at the bottom of any page. Happy Customers of Our "Chemistry Notes! Great resource! Jessica King. Best resource in a long time. Larry Jackson. Section 1 Notes - Foundations of Chemistry. AP chem teacher review. Karen Harper. If I am to adapt this textbook, I would definitely change the order of some topics for several chapters to make it compatible with my educational system syllabus.
The PDF version needs a dramatic formatting change. The online version needs a glossary, page number, header to show the relevant chapter and the missing images should be fixed. There is overlay of the scrolling pages over the navigation bar that can be fixed by a computer programmer. I didn't come across a grammatical errors but in PDF versions there are many cases of spelling errors caused by the elimination of spaces between words.
The online version of the textbook has a good coverage of the subject and I'm considering to introduce it to my students as an option to save money. The order of topics in several chapters and lack of proper formatting issues are the major drawbacks for me in adapting this textbook for my teaching. That being said, I greatly appreciate the efforts of the authors for taking time to produce this textbook. The book covers the essentials of a first year chemistry course, but it lacks depth and "readability".
Indeed, this text could not be used as a standalone teaching option. Also, the text book would benefit from additional pictures and tables, anything to break up the eternal monotony of the words used in the text. I deeply appreciate the time that went into creating a book like this; however, small details would benefit the reader and student of chemistry greatly. The textbook was written in , so up to this date, the book seems very relevant.
An update would, as always, be appreciated! The text uses a readable prose style. Although not super exciting, it is quite clear and consistent…. The text is very consistent in its terminology and framework.
I did not see overlapping definitions, or exceptions to previous sections, etc. With the exception of the first chapter, I found the text readily divisible into smaller segments. This would be quite useful in a seminar course, or perhaps a course over a specific segment of chemistry…. However, the first chapter - and arguably the most important - seems to blend together in an undividable cluster…. Instead the introduction topics mesh and overlap each other, and I'd probably need a second textbook to augment this book were I to adopt it for my classes.
I realize the option to make a text divisible is the prerogative of the authors, but it would be nice to have such a feature available. The text is organized in a logical and very clear fashion. The format follows established progressions as set by other chemistry textbook authors…. I was quite surprised that the beginning of the textbook did not have a table of contents in the PDF version. The website and online version had a table of contents…. Also, to increase the readability of the material, adding in colorful pictures, diagrams, tables and examples would be wonderful: the text is rather dry at the moment, which I find disenchanting since the material is so fraught with wonder and awe.
The text did not rely on "he" or "she" and remained mostly gender neutral. I saw nothing in the text which would exclude specific races, ethnicities or backgrounds. I appreciate the considerable efforts by the authors to create this text, and I wish to thank them for sharing their work with the public in this arena - thank you!
If you ever decide to write a new version or if you are considering adopting this book for your own classes , it would be nice to have some post information included; also, PLEASE include a table of contents in the PDF version of the textbook!!!
The addition of additional pictures, diagrams, tables, etc. Overall I like this book, and given a few additions and changes, it would be great as well. It is well organized and is laid out in the traditional approach. Each chapter contains graphics and illustrations, Each chapter contains graphics and illustrations, though many images are missing - labeled as permanently unavailable.
This is especially evident in chapter 14 Kinetics , with minor omissions in just about every chapter. Minor formatting issues in chapter I think the text certainly could benefit from additional exercises, as well as perhaps adding a section of challenging exercises. Customization of the text for use in any general chemistry course is certainly possible.
As far as I can judge, the content is accurate and I did not come across any major flaws or misconceptions. The text is laid out such that it would be very easy to add to each section as necessary. At this point, applications within the text are current and will be able to be used for quite some time figure 2.
I would like to see a few more current events, figures, tables, or links to current events, woven into the text. The chemistry book has been written to reflect the traditional order of topics.
I feel that the layout along with the nature of the book allows for any changes if a different arrangement of topics is what is desired by the curriculum. I opted to review the online version rather than downloading the pdf. Navigation of the text was easy using my PC and I did not come across any issues of loading of images.
Some of the images seem to be relatively small and I was wondering how these would look on a smaller tablet or IPad which is what many of my students use. Also, all chapters have links that refer back to previous chapters but none of the links opened on my PC. This book is very nicely written and easy to follow. The content is accurate, the text comprehensive and could easily be used in a general chemistry curriculum. It is a great online chemistry book and I would certainly think about adopting it for our general chemistry courses in the future.
However, at this point, it is not quite ready to be used as there are formatting issues and many missing images which distract from the otherwise very well written text. The text is designed to serve biological and biomedical students, engineering students, general education students, health sciences students, pre-medical science students, and science majors requiring at least one year course in general chemistry The text is designed to serve biological and biomedical students, engineering students, general education students, health sciences students, pre-medical science students, and science majors requiring at least one year course in general chemistry and the text contains all of the required material and topics to accomplish this task.
This textbook is a precursor to students who will be studying organic I chemistry and those students who may have to study advanced inorganic chemistry after the freshman and sophomore years, even the former section is too short in nature. The text lacks a table of contents, index or a glossary and the lack of these entities is a serious deficiency. There are some very serious formatting issues which may have been the result of converting from a.
The online version has a warning in some places, i. The image is permanently unavailable. There are also formatting problems with subscripts in chemical formulas NOT appearing as subscripts, again a formatting issue.
This issue is more predominant in the pdf version, where fractions are not shown. It would have been wise for the authors to use Equation Editor to write mathematical equations and use ChemDraw for the structures and major equations followed by saving the files in the.
The pdf version is way too long 2. The textbook has some errors in conjunction with the formatting mentioned in question 1 from above. One case is where the electronic configurations of Cr and Cu are not correct. In another case, the magnitude and the units are not separated by a space, e. The history of chemistry should have been researched as the history of chemistry is very biased towards Europeans versus other races who really have been practicing chemistry for many years.
The text and its examples are both relevant and timeless; the classic Haber-Bosch Process for the production of ammonia is an example.
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