General Chemistry

this book is is crap. I am a Chemistry major and I understand the equations and relations very well, but when I first used this book in my general chemistry classes, it was a waste of my time. The book consists mainly of short examples and the book does not help to understand the relation of the equations. Also, the book as many errors. Because there are errors, you assume that every answer is possibly wrong and that you are doing the work wrong. The errors also do not help when you do have the correct answer. The authors will change the answers and will not inform you as to how they go the answer. If you are taking a Chemistry class and this book is the requirement, I suggest you talk to your professor or use another book for reference, this book is a tragedy.

This book was damaged because it was shipped in an unprotected manner. It also took over a week to arrive.

I don't recommend this book for those who have no background in Chemistry at all. The difinetion aren't clear (sometimes they're very confusing); some of the examples are too short and don't explain well. It's difficult to follow for the biginner. The CD that comes with is almost useless. The test as well as the example questions are almost the same (only the # that are different) There're also some answer mistakes. However, if you just want to review what you've already know, this is not a bad book to have!

Of all texts I've ever reviewed, this is the most error-ridden. In the later chapters the number of serious errors are extraordinary, averaging one every other page. Many of these are simple typos (e.g. p. 752 of the instructor's text where 0.16 becomes 0.17 halfway through the calculations for no reason). However, since the only examples of techniques contain the errors, this makes it very difficult for students to follow. The authors also do not consistently use significant figures. At points, they round off partly through an equation with no explanation. At other points, they simply drop digits (e.g. 0.128 becomes 0.12). Answers to problems in the back show similar problems, including clear precedence errors (e.g. 2 raised to 1/2 becomes 2^1/2=1). Practice problems included on the CD show similar flaws, with all of the multiple choice answers to some problems being incorrect, or the problems themselves incorrectly stated (asking for delta-E rather than delta-U). Unless the latest edition has corrected these, I'd advise everyone to pick another text. Regardless of its other merits (and it has many), the number of errors in it makes it more of a hindrance to students than a help.

As a first year Chemistry student, I found Ebbing the most helpful textbook of the three that was prescribed for me.

Ebbing has it all: A logical layout, Nice diagrams to accompany explained concepts and best of all: a set of applicable problems at the end of each chapter. Ebbing's glossary is also one of the better ones you will come accross in General Chemistry Textbooks.

For the student who likes self-study, Ebbing is a gem, as it explains everything in a user-friendly, easy-reading easy-to-understand manner. It is, in fact, a Chemistry textbook that you can read just for the hell of it. If only I had Ebbing in highschool, my chemistry grades would have been that much higher.

It is not, however a textbook for those planning to major in chem. It is, as the title clearly says, a GENERAL CHEMISTRY textbook and should be treated as such. If you are, however, planning to major in more inter-disciplinary subjects that draw on chemistry , i.e. botany, geology and to an extent physics, Ebbing would be good to have around.