Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change by Martin Silberberg has become a favorite among faculty and students. Silberberg’s 4th edition contains features that make it the most comprehensive and relevant text for any student enrolled in General Chemistry. The text contains unprecedented macroscopic to microscopic molecular illustrations, consistent step-by-step worked exercises in every chapter, an extensive range of end-of-chapter problems which provide engaging applications covering a wide variety of freshman interests, including engineering, medicine, materials, and environmental studies. All of these qualities make Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change the centerpiece for any General Chemistry course.
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Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 34
 My Story with Chemistry and Silberberg June 12, 2005
A. Shankar (NSW Australia)
65 out of 71 found this review helpful
I am a chemistry major, that does not translate to "I like chemistry" but more along the lines that it was the only feasible premedical degree major.
I never did chemistry in High School and suffered tremendously with the thought of majoring in a science that I was unfamiliar with. What if I hated it? What if I wasnt any good at it? these were questions that haunted me prior to starting my degree. When I did commence, I found textbooks to be very costly and wanted the best for my money.
I realized that the price of a textbook does not make it good, nor the length of it. In saying so I started my chemistry studies with two books, one known as Basic Concepts of Chemistry by Malone, published by Wiley and the second was this. Chemistry the Molecular Nature of Matter and Change by Silberberg, published by Mcgraw Hill.
The first book helped establish an understanding of the fundamentals of chemistry, it was an excellant transition from the layman's english into the scientific paradigm. However when one is doing undergraduate chemistry especially in a premedical degree, it ends up not only being a study but a competition.
I found both these books to take me, an Individual who knew absolutely nothing about chemistry without any prior education in the science to someone who is now relaxed even with Organic Chemistry.
My liking and my understanding of chemistry came directly from these two books. I still treasure them to this day and would suggest anyone in my position to get these books.
I have seen and in detail read over 13 general chemistry books from Cheng to Atkins and even Zumdahl. I would deem these two (Malone and Silberberg) to be the best of all of them. However I do suggest that you peruse through various textbooks in a library prior to buying as an author's writing style matters a lot.
Most people who have an issue with Silberberg see him as being too pleonastic however I would think that he gives substantially beneficial explanations to all those concepts which can potentially render an individual confused and perplexed. Another complaint people lodge with Malone is that his style is too generalized and basic....however one is supposed to be a primer and the second to give and individual a robust understanding of a variety of ideas in Chemistry which are used over and over. Therefore both are appropriately written for the purpose they serve.
a good general chemistry text for science majors October 1, 2001
26 out of 26 found this review helpful
This is a very useful chemistry textbooks for a science student who studies independently. I like this book for several reasons: (1) It is comprehensive, (2) It contains detailed explanatins of WHY and HOW things happen,(3) The book includes numerous worked-out problems, and (4) The book is written in a very readable manner, containing straight-foward language and excellent graphic explanations. I am studying biochemistry now, and I go back to this text very often for the explanation of certain topics, eg. buffer problems. The coverage of organic chemistry is very basic in Silberberg's book. For in-depth coverage refer to Organic Chemistry: Structure and reactivity by Seyhan Ege (ISBN 0395902231), a very good book that emphasizes understanding, not memorization. A note: solutions to all problems in Ege's book are in the study guide.
The best science majors' chemistry book I've seen June 11, 2000
C. Grantham
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
While I would hesitate to recommend this to someone who had never taken high school chemistry, as a second year high school book and a science majors' level college text, this book is fantastic. Comparing it to an old version of Brady & Humiston, and Zumdahl's Introductory Chemistry, Silberberg wins hands down. Fantastic layout and detailed explanations of most topics. Not good for the most basic topics (don't even think about learning oxidation-reduction reaction balancing from this text).
excellent introduction to chemistry November 20, 2003
sara aldabe (Buenos Aires Argentine)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
The book gives a clear and precise introductio to the mail concepts in chemistry. The excellent graphics, examples and discussions on frontiers of chemistry makes this book very useful, and motivates students to go deepest in knowledge.
Excellent College-Level Introductory Chemistry Book July 16, 2007
Leicester Dedlock (Ames, IA United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Although this book essentially starts from scratch, I'd recommend it to people who have already had high school chemistry. If you haven't had that, you should still do okay, but you may have to spend some extra time and effort since some of the most basic concepts are only skimmed over. They spend much more time on the material that you probably didn't cover in depth in high school chemistry.
First off, I would say that the book's content is excellent. It is an introductory (sort of) textbook, but it covers most of its topics in plenty of depth (at least as much as you would expect from an introductory general chemistry textbook). Also, the book does a great job at explaining the material in a clear fashion and it provides tons of illustrations. It is a very visual text and the author is obviously aware of the fact that visualizing chemical structures is extremely useful in understanding many of the concepts. This is especially useful in the section on covalent bonding.
The book also provides tons of useful exercises at the end of each chapter. The exercises range from very easy to fairly challenging, but they never seem too frustrating. Generally, I'd say that the exercises leaned more towards "easy" and are mostly just straight-forward applications of the material. Note: If you're having trouble, check out the ChemSkill Builder site. The exercises help a lot and it gives you useful feedback.
Whether it's for a class or for self-study, I would pick this book over any other.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 34
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