chemistry

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.

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).

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.