Chemistry Connections: The Chemical Basis of Everyday Phenomena (Complementary Science)

Review of ‘Chemistry connections: the chemical basis of everyday phenomena’ by Kerry K. Karukstis and Gerald R. Van Hecke.CITATION: Karukstis, K. K. and Van Hecke, G. R. (2000). Chemistry connections: the chemical basis of everyday phenomena. San Diego, California: Academic Press.Reviewer: Dr William P. PalmerThis is a very useful book for chemistry teachers as it provides a chemical explanation for a wide variety of everyday events. The chapters in the book provide chemical explanations connected to medicine, recreation, food, space, the outdoors and the environment, the office, the household, the theatre and the arts, currency and gems, fabrics and clothing and personal care.Most of the explanations of everyday problems remain the same, but over the last fourteen years new problems have arisen and some of the problems mentioned are no longer common. Some problems, such as cleaning a domestic pet, which has been sprayed by a skunk are relevant to only few American situations and presumably none outside the US, but the chemistry is interesting. The authors tried to provide useful web page URLs as a resource, but most of these no longer function. The authors of the book have, as they claim collected an assortment of provocative, topical questions raised by everyday experiences which are answered by the application of chemical principles and they have answered these questions at a level of senior high school students. A useful resource!BILL PALMER

This is a useful resource to introduce everyday applications of Chemistry to my introductory Chemistry students. I believe they will understand the concepts more easily with common examples.

Interesting! The basic chemistry of everyday experience. A bit pricey for casual reading but great of high school chemistry courses.

There are a lot of books out there explaining the chemistry of everyday things. For sheer readability, I recommend Prof. Joe Schwarcz's series of books, which are readily available on Amazon. The shortcoming of Dr. Joe's books, and most books for the general public, is that they aren't really meant to be a resource for teachers of chemistry. They only include the most basic of explanations that the layman can understand.Thus, the need for a book like "Chemistry Connections." It contains the same "basic-level" explanation for a layperson, but also has a second explanation for each subject giving details on a more scientifically rigorous scale. Then there's a section of references (often reputable websites, vetted by the authors) for people that want to get even more in depth.The way the explanations are written, and the choice of topics, makes this a resource best suited to the high-school chemistry classroom, or to a "liberal arts" (chemistry for non-chemists) university course. The explanations tend to be a little thin for a true freshman-level calculus-based chemistry course. That's not to say that a thoughtful professor can't make great use of this book for any level course - the choices of chemical questions are varied and thoughtful, making it a great reference when planning lessons.The book is not perfect. It does not have the zing or flow of many other books for sheer readability - it's best used as a resource to give ideas for presentations and lesson examples for high school or liberal arts courses. There are some typos - there is a pentavalent organic carbon (horror of horrors!) in one diagram, for example. Finally, some of the detailed explanations tend to wander off-topic, for example, explaining how polymers are synthesised in a section on polymer structure. While interesting, it was not relevant to the particular question at hand, and likely to be confusing for the student.

Have you always been somewhat fascinated by chemistry? In college was a chemistry minor, and thought it was very exciting. It explans the many whys and hows behind basic everyday chemistry. Is this book super technical, no. Does it have enough science in it to make it credible, definately.Some of the topics that are included are:Why are Opals and Pearls Iridescent?Why are Ice Cubes Cloudy on the Inside?What Makes a No-Tears Champoo?How do Sutures Dissolve?Why do Lightsticks glow?Are Flamingos Naturally Pink?There are almost 100 of these types of questions. This book might make a great reference for a teacher, or a student in a science fair. The book covers some basic chemistry, and does a great job in building up some excitement around a subject that some may think is dull.I really enjoyed the book because it is broken up into sections: gases, solutions, solids, thermodynamics, and then into the questions that apply to those subjects. The book is a fairly easy read, and thankfully isn't too techincal for those of us who may not be so fresh on some of our chemical understanding.

Overall this book and is fairly successful in its aim of explaining a selection of everyday chemical phenomena in terms accssible to most people. There are a couple of points which really let it down though.First, the presentation of the material and the diagrams could be greatly improved. For example, there is a "3-D" structure of EDTA given. In fact, it just seems to be a 2-D Chemdraw diagram pasted in to Chem3D! It gives no sense of how the dispostion of the oxygen and nitrogen atoms allow EDTA to surround the metal centre thus making it an effective metal sequestering agent.Second, certain sections go in to extraordinary detail concerning the physical chemistry of certain phenomena. Rather complicated equations and diagrams are presented which don't aid the reader in really understanding conceptualising the processe which are described.Third, annoyingly, temperatures are presented only in Fahrenheit. Hello!? Did the authors not consider that they may have readers outside of the US.....(...)

This is an amazing book on chemical explanations on everyday chemical phenomena which i discovered on amazon.co.uk -why do crystals form in wine over time ?Why does an egg crack if boiler rapidly ?Why does the Space Shuttle emit white smoke ?Why is the Hope diamond blue ?How does a bullet proof vest work ?if these questions whet your curiosity grab the second edition

The book arrived one day late. NO problem, because it was in very good condition.The book's content is very interesting : it gives a lot of concrete and practical examples on how chemistry applies to everyday events, and the chemistry behing it is very well explained and detailed. Nevertheless, in spite of all the virtues of the book, it will never substitute for a "real" chemistry book, where the concepts are explained and ordered. The examples of Chemistry Connections are great, but I get the feeling it is very disorganized, and htat it doesn't really follow the curriculum of a chemistry textbook. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who is totally ignorant of basic chemistry.....