CHEMISTRY 125 

INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES 

Which Book to Use?

There are two books for this course, Structure & Reactivity and Chemical Structure and Properties: Chem 125.   Here are some descriptions of them:

Structure & Reactivity

·         written in-house by Dr. Schaller with some contributions from me. 

·         It is free and much shorter

·         It doesn’t have glossy picture

·         It has fewer questions

·         It is written with one voice and is designed for our courses

·         It covers some material not found in the paperback text, Chemical Structure and Properties.       

Chemical Structure and Properties: Chem 125 that you purchased from the bookstore

• This is a custom text that has been compiled from 3 different books (general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry)

•  It is expense and very large

•  It has lots of glossy pictures

•  It has many questions that are assigned in the daily schedule

•  It is written with 3 voices (i.e. 3 different texts) with chapters taken from those texts and assembled in the order that follows our courses.

 Which should you use ? You have 2 basic options:

·         Use Chemical Structure and Properties: Chem 125 as the primary text and supplement it with Structure & Reactivity  OR

·         Use Structure & Reactivity as the primary text and supplement it as you need with Chemical Structure and Properties.

You should make the decision based on your experience and your needs and your learning style.   In this new era where information is available anywhere, anytime, and in many formats, you must learn to select those sources that will meet your needs.   With respect to the problems, other than those assigned, you can choose which one you would like to do, with the knowledge that more time spend doing problems will increase your problem solving skills, not unlike the practice done by musicians.