Overview

Learn chemistry from the ground up, with no earlier coursework required. This beginner-friendly guide explains how atoms combine, why substances change, and how to work the math, using everyday examples like a browning apple, a fizzing antacid tablet, and a rusting nail. Eleven chapters build in a fixed order, so each idea prepares you for the next one. You start with measurement and the states of matter, then finish with batteries, radioactivity, carbon compounds, and the chemistry behind ozone loss and acidifying oceans. Most chapters open with something concrete, like a candle that weighs less after it burns, the colored flames inside fireworks, or a can of soda going flat, and then show you the atoms and numbers behind it. The eleven chapters cover: - Density, units, dimensional analysis, and the difference between physical and chemical change - Atomic structure, isotopes, and the experiments of Dalton, Thomson, and Rutherford that revealed what sits inside an atom - Electron configurations, orbitals, and the quantum model that explains why each element sits where it does on the periodic table - Ionic, covalent, and metallic bonds, with Lewis structures, VSEPR theory, and hybridization so you can draw a molecule and predict its three-dimensional shape - Naming compounds, balancing equations, and stoichiometry - Gas laws, intermolecular forces, phase diagrams, and solutions, including the gas law math that explains how a car airbag inflates - Enthalpy, Hess's law, entropy, and Gibbs free energy, which tell you whether a process will run on its own; then rate laws, catalysts, Le Châtelier's principle, pH, buffers, and titration - Redox and electrochemistry, nuclear fission and fusion, polymers, proteins, DNA, greenhouse gases, and ocean acidification The back of the book adds worked answers to every set of end-of-chapter questions, a glossary of core terms, a list of recommended reading, and a timeline that starts with ancient metalworkers smelting copper and follows how alchemy turned into a laboratory discipline. This book suits: - High school and first-year college students - Nursing and pre-health students reviewing prerequisites - Homeschool families who want a full course in one volume - Self-taught learners and adults who left science behind years ago and want a second try You get each concept in plain language first, and the math arrives one step at a time, with units and numbers you can check yourself. Finish the last chapter and you will be able to explain why salt dissolves, why oil and water separate, why a cold pack turns cold, and why food spoils faster on a warm counter than in the fridge. Work through the questions at the end of each chapter and you will be able to explain all of it to someone else, which is the surest sign you actually understand it.

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