The best
Chemistry books:
Reddit reviews
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
The best of Chemistry books by number of unique Reddit comments:
Top Reddit reviews mentioning Chemistry books:
As someone who has studied dynamical systems for years, I'm pleased to see so many redditors getting interested in them through the double pendulum system. If you're a student and want to learn more, take a course in dynamical systems. If you're not a student, consider reading this book, which is my favorite math book of all time, and I'm far from alone in that sentiment.
This book is considered too dangerous for public consumption, so it's hard to find paper copies, and most libraries removed it from their shelves in the 1960s. Nevertheless, many of today's chemists (including me) learned a lot about handling chemicals from that book.
http://www.geekityourself.com/files/The-Golden-Book-Of-Chemistry-Experiments.pdf
A more up-to-date (and presumably safer) text is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/1119110661
This book was really helpful.
I had to study non-stop for Ochem. It was my last prereq. It was a good experience in the sense that studying for PA school has been very similar.
Get this book set right now. Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by David Klein. This set helped me to really understand and not memorize. Really understanding how and why things work will prevent you from needing to memorizing everything.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119110661/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_z8ckBbDHNYQ3D
I aced OChem because of this two book set. Seriously aced. My lowest test score was an 88. I broke the curve on one exam with a 104. I never cracked open my textbook once.
To be fair though - I studied OChem like four hours per day.
This is the book that was used in my physical chemistry class. I enjoyed it quite a bit as it is written very well and the practice problems help quite a bit. The book is extremely thorough when going through all of the derivations of equations and give pretty good logical explanations while going through the problems as long as you understand how the algebra and calculus works. The biggest con with it however is that the figures which go along with some of the book can be quite difficult to understand the first time you are looking at them. The book can also be quite dry at times. Because of this, I had also picked up the Atkins book because I found it used for cheap on amazon. The Atkins book is a bit less dry and the figures are way more pleasant to look at, however it seems to be a little less in depth than the McQuarrie book.
No matter which book you choose to go with just be aware that the class can be extremely difficult for people and the most important thing is to make sure you are putting a lot of time into the class. It might be worthwhile to find a decent calculus review and to go through it before taking the class if you feel at all lacking in that department. If you do this you will succeed and possibly even really enjoy the class. I was incredibly nervous going in to the class but it turned out to be one of my favorite classes I took my entire undergrad.
I used this book when I took the course, and got me through it without problems. I never read another EC book tho, but I liked this one.
https://www.amazon.com/Electrochemical-Methods-Fundamentals-Allen-Bard/dp/0471043729
You have all kinds of people here, ranging from highschool student to bored phd chemist. I think most of us here are simply passionate about it. If you are interested I recommend Organic Chemistry by Clayden (https://www.amazon.ca/Organic-Chemistry-Jonathan-Clayden/dp/0199270295/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1597352572&sr=8-4)
It is by far, the most well explained chemistry book I have read even when my first language is not english. It's accompanied by good explanations, examples and references that are up to date and they draw links from all the work they can to actual chemistry successes in history.
Quantum chemistry is part of physical chemistry. In fact, this textbook starts off with quantum and then progresses to statistical mechanics/thermo. Some schools put quantum and stat mech/thermo together as part of a year-long physical chemistry sequence:
Physical Chemistry 1 - Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Physical Chemistry 2 - Quantum Chemistry
Other schools, like yours, have a single physical chemistry course and a separate "Quantum Chemistry" course.
At my school, we had the year-long physical chemistry sequence. "Quantum chemistry" is a senior elective for chemistry majors specializing in physical chemistry, where they learn the intense math theory about computational chemistry calculations (Hartree-Fock, DFT) and use software like Gaussian to simulate chemical processes at the molecular level. It's research-y stuff.
Actually this was me as well throughout quarantine here let me share a book I’ve been doing labs out of here most of it is labs you would do in a general chem course and it explains all of the safety tips required to complete all of the labs, I’m not sure I can recommend the last 5 labs as they use more dangerous chemicals (formaldehyde 30-40%, methanol, chloroform, barium hydroxide, etc.) let me know if that helps.
The best place to start as a beginning, is "Rulebook for Arguments" https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0872209547/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It's only 104 pages, and arms you with enough to refute any ~~womans~~ unsound arguments. I still refer to it occasionally, even though I have much large volumes on logic. This little book is great as a tutorial.
The P -> Q shit is actually really simple. Want a quick lesson?
It will depend on your level and the area. The best beginner book IMO is Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos by Strogatz
Oooo... this image was on the front of my old error analysis book in college. I still have it in my office.
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Error-Analysis-Uncertainties-Measurements/dp/093570275X
https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-Your-Examination-Organic-Chemistry/dp/0970804210
This is the study guide book we recommend to our students.
The ACS does have an official exam prep book, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-Your-Examination-Organic-Chemistry/dp/0970804210
As long as you do some general review work it will be fine. The test tends to ask lot of questions about different topics, but it doesn't usually go very deep on any of them. I don't know how difficult your professor is but I had an Organic 1 ACS test last semester and it was the easiest of the whole class.
Organic Chemistry as a Second Language: here
This book helped me a lot in undergrad. I TAed and tutored organic for many years and I always recommended this book as a way of understanding rather than memorizing. They will develop some good chemical intuition with this imo.
I’ve been doing experiments from a book called “Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments”. It’s pretty interesting, though I wouldn’t say they’re all particularly useful. But it is a pretty good intro to several different types of chemistry processes.
Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (DIY Science) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596514921/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_WEH8CRP1KVSMZX67NMV7
Most chemistry textbooks are specifically for Organic, Inorganic or Physical chemistry - the textbook we used for organic chemistry was Clayden (https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Jonathan-Clayden/dp/0199270295 - there are various editions knocking around) and it’s lovely. Definitely goes into some good detail, but accessible to a first year because it progresses logically with little background assumed.
To have a,good introduction on bachelor level, also useful in master, I advise you:
[Organic Chemistry Book by Jonathan Clayden, Nick Greeves, and Stuart Warren
](https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-Jonathan-Clayden/dp/0199270295)
Very well done book for beginners in organic chemistry, to understand how a reaction is actually working. Because of course before having practical good skills, you have to know well the theory behind
This is a good resource that covers everything from equipment and safety to the actual experiments. https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Guide-Home-Chemistry-Experiments/dp/0596514921/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=home+chemistry+experiments&qid=1634943668&qsid=146-7916348-6126801&sr=8-3&sres=0596514921%2CB08DY3W8CL%2C1449396...
This book is pretty good and has a list of glassware and other equipment.
What you get really depends on what she wants to do. I just get my home lab stuff off of eBay.
Do you have this book? We called it the red bible, and I used for both undergrad and grad thermo/quantum courses.
You continue to believe that disagreeing with a person's actions, means you hate the person.
There is nothing I can do to convince you of this fallacy. Therefore, I suggest you take part in a Philosophy course, or read some books on logic & rhetoric.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0872209547/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is a good one that got me started.
If you have the organic chemistry book by clayden there‘s a pretty good explanation called "pushing electrons“ which does give some nice insight on how organic reactions are driven forward. Just to add to the many comments that were already posted.
Dynamical systems theory is a subset of the study of differential equations.
If you want to understand dynamics, you need to analyze the differential equations involved. My suggestion is to look into bifurcation theory and ODE methods since they can be extended to the study of PDEs. Dynamical systems isn't so much about solving the specific partial differential equations as it is about using them to understand the behavior of said system.
If you want an actual primer to the subject, the Strogatz book Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos. Link is a very good way to begin understanding it.
But there isn't a good way to get a decent understanding of dynamical systems without dealing with differential equations because the study of dynamics is the study of differential equations.
I felt kind of the same way until I took a dynamical systems class. Sometimes you just need to find that area that you actually enjoy. I really didn't get the abstract part as easily, but applications peaked my interest just by virtue of being able to see the results of what all the abstract stuff could do.
Have you decided where you want to focus yet and where you want to lean into?
I had a weird path in school, so I ended up taking physics at the same time as I was doing complex analysis, and I remember immediately seeing the applications of what we were doing when we entered electromagnetism in physics. Its one of the main reasons I chose to stay on the math road rather than changing over to CS.
My suggestion is to branch out a bit and find some stuff you really like in math. Personally I found group/ring/field theory super boring, but analysis was really interesting. You should try to find a niche that sparks your interest or makes you interested in what you could do with math.
For some suggestions on interesting applied math topics (IMO of course) are numerical analysis and dynamical systems. Dynamics absolutely blew my mind so much that it solidified my decision to go to grad school and learn more about it.
Edit: if you want to see a really interesting book on all of the applications for diffeq, check out nonlinear dynamics and chaos by Strogatz
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/1119110661
​
Best Ochem book ever. I took Ochem from the author back in the day.
There are a few heavily referred to texts for physical chemistry/quantum.
- Physical Chemistry by Mcquarrie and Simon (https://www.amazon.com/Physical-Chemistry-Molecular-Donald-McQuarrie/dp/0935702997) (Aka the "Big red bible" of physical/quantum chemistry.)
- Quantum Chemistry by Levine
- Physical Chemistry by Atkins
- Quantum Chemistry by Mcquarrie
I have never seen a physical chemistry/quantum chemistry class taught at the university level without one of these books. At one point they split the Physical chemistry by Mcquarrie and simon into two different books, but they lost a few chapters on kinetics along the way. That's the book I would suggest getting first as it goes through physical chemistry, THEN the introduction to quantum. Then you can read the same author's quantum chemistry book.
It's been a while, but it's worth noting that quantum mechanics is generally taught using two different methods of notation. The first is Dirac notation (or Bra Ket notation), and I forget the other one. They SEEM completely different, but they solve the same problems using similar math. I prefer the other one, I just can't seem to remember the name right now. Operators maybe?
Basically it was the same topic approached by two equally smart scientists from different views, so they teach it differently.