Fundamentals of Chemistry

An introduction to the fundamentals of chemistry, this text is suited to students who need help with mathematical manipulations, as well as reading and writing scientific material. The book features: extensive use of everyday analogies to introduce chemical principles; use of the periodic table in chapters 4 and 5 for deducing electronic configurations makes configurations closer to physical reality (this approach de-emphasizes mathematics in learning to write electronic configurations); flowcharts in the margin aim to help students work through dimensional analysis and stoichiometry problems, as well as inorganic nomenclature; "items for special attention" at the end of each chapter emphasize the points students often confuse, such as similar sounding chemical terms; end of chapter problems are graduated in difficulty, and of three types - self-tutorial, sectional and general; and algebra review and hints on calculator use can be found in appendix 1.