Recorded Books Inc. - Chemistry For Dummies

Chemistry For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
http://www.wiley.com

Copyright 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY : THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit http://www.wiley.com/techsupport .

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011926326

ISBN: 978-1-119-29346-0 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1-119-29727-7 (ebk); ISBN: 978-1-119-29728-4 (ebk)

Chemistry For Dummies, 2nd Edition (9781119293460) was previously published as Chemistry For Dummies, 2nd Edition (9781118007303). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.

1. Table of Contents

Youve passed the first hurdle in understanding a little about chemistry: Youve picked up Chemistry For Dummies, 2nd Edition. I imagine that a large number of people looked at the title, saw the word chemistry, and bypassed it like it was covered in germs.

I dont know how many times Ive been on vacation, struck up a conversation with someone, and been asked the dreaded question: What do you do?

Im a teacher, I reply.

Really? And what do you teach?

I steel myself, grit my teeth, and say in my most pleasant voice, Chemistry.

I see The Expression, followed by, Oh, I never took chemistry. It was too hard. Or You must be smart to teach chemistry. Or Goodbye! If I were still in the dating scene, Hi, I teach chemistry would not be a good pick-up line!

I think a lot of people feel this way because they think that chemistry is too abstract, too mathematical, too removed from their real lives. But in one way or another, all of us do chemistry.

Remember making that baking soda and vinegar volcano as a child? Thats chemistry. Do you cook or clean or use fingernail polish remover? All that is chemistry. I never had a chemistry set as a child, but I always loved science. My high school chemistry teacher was a great biology teacher but really didnt know much chemistry. But when I took my first chemistry course in college, the labs hooked me. I enjoyed seeing the colors of the solids coming out of solutions. I enjoyed synthesis, making new compounds. The idea of making something nobody else had ever made before fascinated me. I wanted to work for a chemical company, doing research, but then I discovered my second love: teaching.

Chemistry is sometimes called the central science (mostly by chemists), because in order to have a good understanding of biology or geology or even physics, you must have a good understanding of chemistry. Ours is a chemical world, and I hope that you enjoy discovering the chemical nature of it and that afterward, you wont find the word chemistry so frightening.

My goal with this book is not to make you into a chemistry major. My goal is simply to give you a basic understanding of some chemical topics that commonly appear in high school or college introductory chemistry courses. If youre taking a course, use this book as a reference in conjunction with your notes and textbook.

Simply watching people play tennis, no matter how intently you watch them, will not make you a tennis star. You need to practice. And the same is true with chemistry. Its not a spectator sport. If youre taking a chemistry course, then you need to practice and work on problems. I show you how to work certain types of problems gas laws, for example but use your textbook for practice problems. Its work, yes, but it really can be fun.

As I updated this second edition of Chemistry For Dummies, I reflected on what to include. Ive enjoyed getting e-mails from people all over the world asking questions about the first edition or thanking me. However, looking at the overall feedback, I felt that I hadnt included quite enough about calculations and some other topics that students taking a college or high schoollevel class really needed. So in this second edition I beefed up the calculations and included some extra topics normally found in the first year of high school chemistry or the first semester of general chemistry in college. Overall, this edition will be more useful to those of you taking the chemistry course. For those of you who want some help with second-semester topics, hang in there and maybe, just maybe, youll soon see