v1.0.0 / chapter 14 of 14 / 01 sep 07 / greg goebel / public domain
* Although I enjoy the sciences, I wasn't fond of my chemistry classes in high school and college. Possibly the emphasis on rote learning turned me off; I recall teaching assistants in my college classes expressing a certain contempt for that approach as well. However, once I decided to build a series of documents on the physical sciences, there was simply no way around writing a document on chemistry.
As I worked on this document I began to realize that I didn't want to write something that was much like a conventional chemistry text. There's nothing wrong with such things, of course, but they do tend to be overkill for someone who "doesn't do chemistry for a living", for example myself. A long survey of, say, organic chemistry is pretty useless for non-chemists, involving a lot of memorization of factoids that are promptly forgotten. Does anyone except a chemistry professional have the slightest need to know the IUPAC naming schemes for hydrocarbons?
The end result was that I tried to focus on history and applications, making quick references to topics such as chemical equations and organic chemistry, so vital to a formal chemistry class, in brief footnotes. I generally followed the line of least resistance in writing this document, taking as minimalist as possible an attitude towards topics that seemed laborious and focusing on stuff that was more like fun: "When in doubt, throw it out." It turned out that being lazy was a useful strategy, since it helped keep a focus on a readable end product for nonspecialists, instead of a dry formal text.
I don't claim that this document is a replacement for, much less superior to, a conventional chemistry text. It is targeted for readers who would find a formal text too much to be useful. However, I would claim it also provides a useful background supplement for those who are working on a formal chemistry course. I will add more to it in the future as I learn new things and figure out places where I went wrong -- not being a chemist, I am certain there are a few naive statements here and there.
* Sources include:
I surfed quite a few websites for data, too many and too trivial to mention, and even found some information in TV shows on explosives and fireworks broadcast on the HISTORY CHANNEL and the DISCOVERY CHANNEL.
Somewhat to my surprise, different sources gave different, sometimes seriously different, numbers for the properties of the elements, which left me in a quandary about who to believe. I finally decided to buy a CRC HANDBOOK OF CHEMISTRY & PHYSICS to get the data -- I bought a used one, the 70th edition from 1989:1990, there being no reason to shell out the stiff price of a new one when all I wanted was simple basic data that's been nailed down for decades.
* The chapters on plastics, batteries & fuel cells, and explosives & pyrotechnics were originally released as stand-alone documents:
The revision history of this document follows:
v1.0.0 / 01 sep 07 / gvg