• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

Need recommendation for chemistry textobook

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 1419
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My son is having trouble with high school chemistry. He says his teacher is bad. I told him to read his textbook.

Well, last night I took a look at his textbook, and I've never seen such drivel in a high school textbook. It reads like amateurish computer program documentation. That is, every other sentence is completely unintelligible to anyone who doesn't already know the material it presumes to explain, e.g. by defining concepts in terms of other concepts that it has not yet introduced or explained, and with ambiguous assertions that could be right or wrong depending upon how the unexplained terms (such as "property") are interpreted.

Chapter 1 mentions substances, elements, physical properties, chemical properties -- each term being explained in terms of the others, but before the other terms have been satisfactorily explained.

Can anyone recommend an elementary chemistry text follows good technical writing principles -- so that a smart student with a good memory can read from page 1 to the end without ever being confused or failing to understand what was just said?
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic