I just hit a Jackpot

[w_houle]

I just found all the coursework, course material, books, and notes, for first year college chemistry

 

[Deleted member 619]

If you're studying chemistry, you should definitely get yourself a copy of Asimov on Chemistry. It's an easy and absorbing read by one of the best and most approachable science writers of all time (I wish I could get even within lightyears, and I'm no slouch), and it will give you an easy route to some hard-won intuitions that will massively aid your absorption of the course material.

One of the best science books for the layman I've ever read, in an extremely strong field.

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

I'd also strongly recommend Why Chemical Reactions Happen.

Another book I'd recommend is Nature's Building Blocks, it has all sorts of interesting facts related to the chemical elements in it.

Kindest regards,

James

 

[Sparhafoc]

Is the answer 'energy gradients'?

Either I've saved myself a long read, or I need to buy that book!

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

Is the answer 'energy gradients'?

Either I've saved myself a long read, or I need to buy that book!

Which one?

Kindest regards,

James

 

[Sparhafoc]

Why Chemical Reactions Happen --- ? --- I added a question mark and gave an answer.

My chemistry's not great, but the nature of the universe has some basic rules to it, one being that nature's not keen on big variances in states coexisting.

Water finds its level thanks to gravity - one kind of gradient - but capilliary pressure through potential gradients pushes/pulls water up against gravity,. In a not at all similar, yet ultimately driven by the same universal direction towards equilibrium, chemical reactions occur because by so doing, the atoms comprising the elements become stable and stop, or at least become more resistant to, reacting to other present elements.

 

[Deleted member 619]

Entropy, entropy, they've all got it entropy...

 

[Sparhafoc]

Still one of my fondest online discussion memories was with a chap who kept calling me close-minded because I wasn't prepared to entertain the 2nd law of thermodynamics just switching off momentarily so his pet idea would work.

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

Although it does cover energy and entropy, it's more focussed on bonds and electron orbits.

Regardless of your level of knowledge of chemistry, it's well worth reading. Its particularly recommended for anyone planning on studying chemistry at university level.

Kindest regards,

James

 

[w_houle]

My wife was really not happy with all the notes and handouts, but was able to come to a compromise with holding on to the books of geology, anthropology, anatomy and physiology, and comparative religion.

 

[Deleted member 619]

Still one of my fondest online discussion memories was with a chap who kept calling me close-minded because I wasn't prepared to entertain the 2nd law of thermodynamics just switching off momentarily so his pet idea would work.

One of my fondest online memories was when I took a little time to think about entropy and evolution after doing a write-up for the sci-writing comp at RDF. I started to think about evolution purely in terms of the energy cascade, and came up with something I thought was possibly an original approach.

I was gazumped by less than a year. A paper was published only a year earlier detailing pretty much exactly what I'd sketched,

One might think of that as a loss, but I don't.

 

[Sparhafoc]

My wife was really not happy with all the notes and handouts, but was able to come to a compromise with holding on to the books of geology, anthropology, anatomy and physiology, and comparative religion.

When I started planning moving to live together with my partner, she suggested we'd have a lot more space if I got rid of most of my books, and I told her I'd have even more space if I got rid of her. The books stay..... *growl*.

 

[Sparhafoc]

One of my fondest online memories was when I took a little time to think about entropy and evolution after doing a write-up for the sci-writing comp at RDF. I started to think about evolution purely in terms of the energy cascade, and came up with something I thought was possibly an original approach.

That's what makes it all worthwhile. I've experienced many such instances when discussing an otherwise familiar concept but the way another mind phrases their explanation sets off a string of thoughts that leads you to previously unexplored vistas. Even idiots cause this sometimes, albeit usually for the wrong reason, but I'll take it whatever the source!

 

[Deleted member 619]

Indeed.