For courses in two-semester general chemistry. Accurate, data-driven authorship with expanded interactivity leads to greater student engagement.

Unrivaled problem sets, notable scientific accuracy and currency, and remarkable clarity have made Chemistry: The Central Science the leading general chemistry text for more than a decade. Trusted, innovative, and calibrated, the text increases conceptual understanding and leads to greater student success in general chemistry by building on the expertise of the dynamic author team of leading researchers and award-winning teachers.

Features

Integrative Exercises connect concepts in the current chapter with those from previous chapters and serve as an overall review of key concepts, helping students gain a deeper understanding of how chemistry fits together. Sample Integrative Exercises in many chapters show how to analyse and solve problems encompassing more than one concept. Design An Experiment activities provide a departure from the usual end-of-chapter exercises with an inquiry-based, open-ended approach that stimulates a student to ‘think like a scientist.’ Designed to foster critical thinking, each exercise presents the student with a scenario in which various unknowns require investigation. The student is called upon to ponder how experiments might be set up to provide answers to particular questions about observations. Chemistry and Life and Chemistry Put to Work help students connect chemistry to world events, scientific discoveries, and medical breakthroughs. The unique Analyse - Plan - Solve - Check feature helps students to understand what they are being asked as they solve, plan how to solve it, work their way through the solution, and check their answers. Selected sample exercises use a dual-column problem-solving strategy approach to show students the thought process involved in each step of a mathematical calculation. Data-Driven Problem Revisions were made in an informed manner with the author team consulting the reservoir of data available through Mastering Chemistry to revise the question bank. This data enabled them to analyse which problems were frequently assigned and why; to pay careful attention to the amount of time it took students to work through a problem (flagging those that took longer than expected); and to observe the wrong answer submissions and hints used (a measure used to calculate the difficulty of problems). Practice Exercises provide students with an additional problem to test mastery of the concepts in the text and to address the most common conceptual misunderstandings. To ensure that the questions touched on the most common misconceptions, the authors consulted the ACS Chemistry Concept inventory before writing their questions. Practice Exercises accompany each Sample Exercise within the chapters with correct answers provided in an appendix. Visualising Concepts exercises precede the end-of-chapter exercises and ask students to consider concepts through the use of models, graphs, and other visual materials. These help students develop a conceptual understanding of the key ideas in the chapter. Additional conceptual exercises are found among the end-of-chapter exercises.
Molecular illustrations help students see what is happening on a molecular level in the sample exercises. Multi-Focus Graphics provide a variety of perspectives including macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic to portray various chemical concepts. Students develop a more complete understanding of the topic being presented. Computer-generated molecular illustrations provide visual representations of matter at the atomic level.
Go Figure questions let students stop and take time to analyse the artwork in the text to be sure they understand the concept behind it.

New to this edition

Eight chapters cover organic chemistry in depth, ranging from an overview of hydrocarbons to their advanced applications in modern industry as well as biological processes. An additional ninth chapter covers spectroscopy and gives the instructor the freedom to discuss technological details if it matches their pedagogical style. Ready-to-Go Modules for the book include modules on specific organic-chemistry content presented in-depth for the first time. These provide ready-made content on select topics to help the instructor introduce a concept to their students. Section-opening text and images enhance students’ understanding of the concepts introduced in that section and explicate the historical contexts around key inventions and discoveries in chemistry. End-of-section Exercises and Self-Assessment Exercises bring assessment closer to the key pedagogical takeaways from each section. How To features offer step-by step guidance for solving specific types of problems such as Drawing Lewis Structures, Balancing Redox Equations, Naming Acids, etc. These features, with numbered steps wrapped by a thin rule, are integrated into the main discussion and are easy to find. A Closer Look features have been updated to reflect recent news and discoveries in the field of chemistry, providing relevance and applications for students.
End-of-chapter questions often give students the chance to test whether they understood the concept or not. Enhanced art creates clarity and provides a cleaner more modern look with details that include white-background annotation boxes with crisp, thin leaders plus richer and more saturated colours in the art, and expanded use of 3D renderings. Annotations offer more detailed explanations; new leaders emphasise key relationships and key points in figures. Before/after photos more clearly show characteristics of endothermic and exothermic reactions. Added reaction equations connect the chemistry to what’s happening in the photos.