3 ms·
For Chemistry - Atkins' Physical Chemistry and Claydens' Organic Chemistry are the bibles. Will take you from undergrad to bits of grad school. Encompassing an
by yomly 6y ago
For Chemistry - Atkins' Physical Chemistry and Claydens' Organic Chemistry are the bibles.
Will take you from undergrad to bits of grad school. Encompassing and clear.
It was a bit harder to find as good a bible for inorganic chemistry.
Softley' Atomic Spectra and Keeler's Why Chemical Reactions Happen are phenomenal primers too but are a bit smaller in scope than the aforementioned two.
The same Atkins from above also wrote Molecular Quantum Mechanics which is also a solid text
- WWWWH 6y agoI’m a big fan of all of these. Clayden is very gentle (or maybe that’s just Org being easy...). But Atkins gets hard quite fast—-the chat from first years is that beginners will find it a bit tough. I’d generally recommend the cut down Atkins to start (Elements of...) or if you prefer pop Sci The Second Law was great as an UG trying to wrap my head around this. Creation Revisited also rocks.
- yomly 6y agoYeah Atkins was quite heavy. That said, I think it does a good job of being self-contained. You could more or less get 80-90% of what you need with only that text from high school knowledge. But without additional resources and teachers supplementing, it will probably be too gruelling. I think that's more because physical chemistry is quite hard
- totony 6y agoI second atkins, it's a classic and covers base to more advanced subjects very well imo. I feel it takes time to read, but it's the one book that provided the most value in my understanding of chemistry.
- wrycoder 6y agoFor a solid introduction to undergrad chemistry, I'd recommend Nivaldo Tro, Chemistry: A Molecular Approach.