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Summary

We're all natural born chemists. Every time we cook, clean, take a shower, drive a car, use a solvent, such as fingernail polish remover, or perform any of the countless everyday activities that involve complex chemical reactions we're doing chemistry. You might even say that we're all participating in a grand chemistry experiment that started with the first human who mixed pigments to do a cave painting. Why do so many of us desperately resist learning chemistry when we're young? Maybe it has something to do with the way it's taught in school.Now there's a fun, easy way to learn basic chemistry. Whether you're studying chemistry in school and you're looking for a little help making sense of what's being taught in class, or you're just into learning new things for their own sake, Chemistry For Dummies gets you rolling with all the basics of matter and energy, atoms and molecules, acids and bases, and much more. In no time you'll: Understand atomic structure and function Use the Periodic Table of elements Know what happens when matter changes from one state to another Explore ionic and covalent bonding Get a handle on chemical reactions Perform simple chemistry calculations Understand acids, bases, pHs, antacids, and gases Make sense Boyle's Law, Avrogadro's Law and other key laws in chemistryPacked with examples of chemistry in action in everyday life, Chemistry For Dummies is a fascinating exploration of broad range of topics in chemistry, including: States of matter, from the macroscopic to the microscopic Understanding how the elements are arranged in the Periodic Table Nuclear chemistry, radioactivity and radioactive decay Positive and negative ions and ionic compounds Covalent bonding in covalent compounds Chemical reactions, chemical equilibrium, and electrochemistry The mole and how it's used to calculate chemical reactions Great serendipitous discoveries in chemistry Environmental chemistryWritten in plain English and requiring only basic math, Chemistry For Dummies puts you on the fast track to mastering the basics of chemistry.

Introduction
Basic Concepts of Chemistry
What Is Chemistry, and Why Do I Need to Know Some?
Matter and Energy
Something Smaller Than an Atom? Atomic Structure
The Periodic Table (But No Chairs)
Nuclear Chemistry: It'll Blow Your Mind
Blessed Be the Bonds That Tie
Opposites Do Attract: Ionic Bonds
Covalent Bonds: Let's Share Nicely
Chemical Cooking: Chemical Reactions
Electrochemistry : Batteries to Teapots
The Mole: The Chemist's Best Friend
The Mole: Can You Dig It?
Mixing Matter Up: Solutions
Sour and Bitter: Acids and Bases
Balloons , Tires, and Scuba Tanks: The Wonderful World of Gases
Chemistry in Everyday Life: Benefits and Problems
The Chemistry of Carbon: Organic Chemistry
Petroleum : Chemicals for Burning or Building
Polymers : Making Big Ones from Little Ones
Chemistry in the Home
Cough ! Cough! Hack! Hack! Air Pollution
Brown , Chunky Water? Water Pollution
The Part of Tens
Ten Serendipitous Discoveries in Chemistry
Ten Great Chemistry Nerds
Ten Useful Chemistry Web Sites
Scientific Units: The Metric System
How to Handle Really Big or Really Small Numbers
Unit Conversion Method
Significant Figures and Rounding Off
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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