Post: #1

I am trying to learn chemistry, physics and math just to increase my various knowledge on stuff and I am looking for a good chemistry book that really break stuff down and makes you enjoy turning the pages.

I have no basic knowledge in the subject and most textbooks are just not easy to read. If there is such a book I would really appreciate your help.

Post: #2

Interesting chemistry ahaha. Zumdahl is a good one for introductory chem. Any specific chem you interested in organic physical etc?

Post: #3

http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry ?

Post: #4

(11-12-2012 03:33 PM)WesternCancer Wrote:  Interesting chemistry ahaha. Zumdahl is a good one for introductory chem. Any specific chem you interested in organic physical etc?

Not really, I am a man with a limited life so I just want to learn as much as iI can about important topics.

Hell it might help me out in the long run.

- PartyonBro, I learned more by watching one of the videos than I did during the two years of require chemistry in high school. thanks

Post: #5

To be honest the self-study of the sciences is not an easy undertaking.
What I recommend is this website

http://www.openculture.com/free_textbooks

Just download a free text and start reading and taking notes.
Not sure why you'd want to learn chem though. Physics is basically chemistry but badass and with more math. I recommend that over chemistry because the applications are better. You can learn somewhat higher level newtonian physics with no understanding of calculus.

In all seriousness what would help you out the most would be learning economics. Can't stress that enough, my introductory econ class in college really opened my eyes to how shit works. Economics applies to a lot of life (especially game) and having an understanding of econ will benefit you much more than an amateur's approach of math, physics, or chemistry.

Studying maths by yourself is also a huge pain in the ass. I recommend just grabbing one thing (calculus or set theory or analysis or game theory .. etc) and figuring out how to master it without huge emphasis on the other fields thereof. It seriously does take years to absorb everything that you need to know about a certain field because math is so heavily interrelated.

If I had to pick one for you it would be calculus, and if I had to pick you a calculus book it would be this strange one --

http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Calcul...s=calculus

It's a manga guide to calculus. Pretty cool.
Calculus is one of those powerful tools that will teach you how to think about how things change. I think that the idea of calculus is genius because it's probably the first way I figured out how to understand metadata.

I think that your desire to find a chemistry book that is a page-turner is difficult to satisfy. If it's been written it's probably like "eat shoots leaves" for grammar and not exactly comprehensive. It definitely had to sacrifice solid knowledge to make it entertaining.

Probably my most useful tip I'm going to throw in here is that you didn't learn calculus/econ/chem/physics or whatever until you have taken a test to prove your mettle. You must intermittently test yourself to be sure that you're learning the material. Otherwise there's no sense in learning it.

I have trouble enough in class to not understand why somebody would warrant curiosity in the subject. Speaking as a math and physics major. To each his own I suppose.

Post: #6

(11-12-2012 03:50 PM)le prince perdu Wrote:  

(11-12-2012 03:33 PM)WesternCancer Wrote:  Interesting chemistry ahaha. Zumdahl is a good one for introductory chem. Any specific chem you interested in organic physical etc?

Not really, I am a man with a limited life so I just want to learn as much as iI can about important topics.

Hell it might help me out in the long run.

- PartyonBro, I learned more by watching one of the videos than I did during the two years of require chemistry in high school. thanks

Out of curiosity, why do you consider chemistry an important topic to learn? Seems to me there are so many other things you could learn which would be useful to you.

Post: #7

(11-12-2012 03:33 PM)WesternCancer Wrote:  Interesting chemistry ahaha. Zumdahl is a good one for introductory chem. Any specific chem you interested in organic physical etc?

this. took my pre-med reqs at UT austin (top 25 school). all chem teachers recommended this book.

Post: #8

(11-12-2012 04:23 PM)Hades Wrote:  To be honest the self-study of the sciences is not an easy undertaking.
What I recommend is this website

http://www.openculture.com/free_textbooks

Just download a free text and start reading and taking notes.
Not sure why you'd want to learn chem though. Physics is basically chemistry but badass and with more math. I recommend that over chemistry because the applications are better. You can learn somewhat higher level newtonian physics with no understanding of calculus.

In all seriousness what would help a simple man (not being condescending or anything, just trying to give realistic advice here) would be learning economics. Can't stress that enough, my introductory econ class in college really opened my eyes to how shit works. Economics applies to a lot of life (especially game) and having an understanding of econ will benefit you much more than an amateur's approach of math, physics, or chemistry.

Studying maths by yourself is also a huge pain in the ass. I recommend just grabbing one thing (calculus or set theory or analysis or game theory .. etc) and figuring out how to master it without huge emphasis on the other fields thereof. It seriously does take years to absorb everything that you need to know about a certain field because math is so heavily interrelated.

If I had to pick one for you it would be calculus, and if I had to pick you a calculus book it would be this strange one --

http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Calcul...s=calculus

It's a manga guide to calculus. Pretty cool.
Calculus is one of those powerful tools that will teach you how to think about how things change. I think that the idea of calculus is genius because it's probably the first way I figured out how to understand metadata.

I think that your desire to find a chemistry book that is a page-turner is difficult to satisfy. If it's been written it's probably like "eat shoots leaves" for grammar and not exactly comprehensive. It definitely had to sacrifice solid knowledge to make it entertaining.

Probably my most useful tip I'm going to throw in here is that you didn't learn calculus/econ/chem/physics or whatever until you have taken a test to prove your mettle. You must intermittently test yourself to be sure that you're learning the material. Otherwise there's no sense in learning it.

I have trouble enough in class to not understand why somebody would warrant curiosity in the subject. Speaking as a math and physics major. To each his own I suppose.

Yeah agree with you here.

There are some very intellectually meaty subjects that are also very applicable to the world. Economics is one, another amazing one is Systems Dynamics. It's engineering systems-thinking and simulation methods applied to human and environmental systems. Very very cool... you start to see literally everything around you as a system with stocks, flows, feedback loops, systems of systems... etc. So many applications. Good starting book = "Systems Thinking: A Primer" By Donella Medows.

One great transferrable skill you get from hard sciences though is the understanding of the scientific method, testing, and how to evaluate a study for credibility. You get that from a degree, but you can also learn it directly. Ben Goldacres "Bad Science" is a good start.

Other really fun "tough" things to learn = human languages, programming languages. Formatting your brain for certain languages (both human and machine) kind of gives you more options for the forms your thoughts take. It's amazing.

I actually also find business pretty fascinating. I have a Physics degree, which I arrogantly used to think meant that anything less of a "hard" subject would be trivial for me. But in fact I find plenty of business concepts quite challenging to truly grasp (to the point where I can actually make use of them, anyway). It's possible to really dig into the concepts on a theoretical level, again formatting your brain for a certain kind of mental model and way of looking at the world. You can do that by learning about Marketing, which make you look around and see all the effective and ineffective ways people are communicating their offers. You can do it with Process and Operations Management, and look around and see which businesses have worked on perfecting processes that run smoothly, and which are stuck in fire-fighting and reacting to the moment. You could study any one component of business for years and still find ways to go deeper with it.

I think sometimes people can feel like they missed out on something in school, and that they are gonna be ignorant until they learn about it. The irony is you can get a more useful education by studying things that you'll really use , and you can also tackle meaty subjects and work your brain in the process.

Post: #9

(11-12-2012 04:23 PM)Hades Wrote:  To be honest the self-study of the sciences is not an easy undertaking.
What I recommend is this website

http://www.openculture.com/free_textbooks

Just download a free text and start reading and taking notes.
Not sure why you'd want to learn chem though. Physics is basically chemistry but badass and with more math. I recommend that over chemistry because the applications are better. You can learn somewhat higher level newtonian physics with no understanding of calculus.

In all seriousness what would help you out the most would be learning economics. Can't stress that enough, my introductory econ class in college really opened my eyes to how shit works. Economics applies to a lot of life (especially game) and having an understanding of econ will benefit you much more than an amateur's approach of math, physics, or chemistry.

Studying maths by yourself is also a huge pain in the ass. I recommend just grabbing one thing (calculus or set theory or analysis or game theory .. etc) and figuring out how to master it without huge emphasis on the other fields thereof. It seriously does take years to absorb everything that you need to know about a certain field because math is so heavily interrelated.

If I had to pick one for you it would be calculus, and if I had to pick you a calculus book it would be this strange one --

http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Calcul...s=calculus

It's a manga guide to calculus. Pretty cool.
Calculus is one of those powerful tools that will teach you how to think about how things change. I think that the idea of calculus is genius because it's probably the first way I figured out how to understand metadata.

I think that your desire to find a chemistry book that is a page-turner is difficult to satisfy. If it's been written it's probably like "eat shoots leaves" for grammar and not exactly comprehensive. It definitely had to sacrifice solid knowledge to make it entertaining.

Probably my most useful tip I'm going to throw in here is that you didn't learn calculus/econ/chem/physics or whatever until you have taken a test to prove your mettle. You must intermittently test yourself to be sure that you're learning the material. Otherwise there's no sense in learning it.

I have trouble enough in class to not understand why somebody would warrant curiosity in the subject. Speaking as a math and physics major. To each his own I suppose.

The reason I want to learn chemistry is just because it's starting to fascinate me. I mean if you only see all the great things chemist have been coming up with over the last decades. Like all the shit in your labels these days, the 599 chemicals in cigarette. The new drugs, cheating your pallet by making something that taste and bleed like a steak, by just using plants is amazing.

That also doesn't mean that I'm not going to study economy and such but I'm just in a time where my brain is asking for some chemistry and I'm going to please it.

Post: #10

You should learn the basics then head right into organic chem. Shit is so cool.

Anyways why I think chemistry is useful to study:

- it changes your perspectives on things. You no longer see things as just happening, or just existing. You know everything that happens is due to interactions between molecules/atoms. Everything happens due to entropy/enthalpy. You'll be able to understand food labels. It really just gives you a different way of looking at all of life.

Post: #11

Why do people say economics is an important subject? It's not even science. It's full of false premises and assumptions. I'd say finance is more useful and interesting.

Post: #12

I'm honestly intrigued by chemistry as well. I think it be cool how to make your own steroids and other drugs. But in the long run to succeed socially I think you'd be better off learning how to enjoy a fucking football game or become a DJ

there is simply not enough time in the day to do everything you want and It makes sense ironically enough to often appeal to the lowest common denominator

Post: #13

(11-12-2012 10:52 PM)Menace Wrote:  Why do people say economics is an important subject? It's not even science. It's full of false premises and assumptions. I'd say finance is more useful and interesting.

I'm inclined to agree. I did an Economics Masters and, coming from a hard science, thought the same many times. I think Economics is a worthwhile endeavour though, but they need to start accepting both Behavioural Psychology and Systems Dynamics are more appropriate frameworks for alot of questions. Alot of the Keynsian stuff, assumptions about Utility Maximization, and using Econometrics to "explain" things are massively outdated and not fit-for-purpose.

Alot is good in it though. The "Incentives" framework from Microeconomics, and Game Theory applied to humans and firms is massively useful.

It's a very worthwhile subject, they just need better tools. It is changing. Books like the EconoMyth are showing it up, as are results from behavioural studies. Remember it's still quite a young discipline, and at least it's not Sociology

Post: #14

(11-12-2012 10:16 PM)WesternCancer Wrote:  You should learn the basics then head right into organic chem. Shit is so cool.

Anyways why I think chemistry is useful to study:

- it changes your perspectives on things. You no longer see things as just happening, or just existing. You know everything that happens is due to interactions between molecules/atoms. Everything happens due to entropy/enthalpy. You'll be able to understand food labels. It really just gives you a different way of looking at all of life.

I think that's what I am trying to get myself a good deep understanding of.
I mean how crazy is it that we live in a world where everything you ingest now has been modified chemically, either by mixing of multiples to make one, or the pesticide spraid on plants, or the liquid, medications. It's kind of scary to not know about stuff that some other human being are fucking around with and making all kind of substances and then just dump it in the world and we start using that stuff as medicine, or cookies, ketchup, and all the hundreds of products in stores. And then many get disease, trauma, cancer and such

Post: #15

I was actually taught by Steve Zumdahl. That guy is super rich just from updating 1 word in his textbook every year or so.

I have a Ph.D. in chemistry, so ask me any question you could possibly imagine.

Post: #16

(11-12-2012 10:16 PM)WesternCancer Wrote:  You should learn the basics then head right into organic chem. Shit is so cool.

Anyways why I think chemistry is useful to study:

- it changes your perspectives on things. You no longer see things as just happening, or just existing. You know everything that happens is due to interactions between molecules/atoms. Everything happens due to entropy/enthalpy. You'll be able to understand food labels. It really just gives you a different way of looking at all of life.

Organic chemistry was my favorite class in college. I started thinking about it more after watching that awful druggie movie Formula 51 with Samuel L. Jackson. Have you seen it westerncancer?

Post: #17

(11-12-2012 10:52 PM)Menace Wrote:  Why do people say economics is an important subject? It's not even science. It's full of false premises and assumptions. I'd say finance is more useful and interesting.

Mostly because you can apply supply and demand and opportunity cost to pussy.

Post: #18

(11-13-2012 10:56 AM)at350zguyy Wrote:  I was actually taught by Steve Zumdahl. That guy is super rich just from updating 1 word in his textbook every year or so.

I have a Ph.D. in chemistry, so ask me any question you could possibly imagine.

which book would you recommend me reading? are Zumdahl's books the best when it comes to newbies?

I am going to check out organic chemistry.

Post: #19

Some links from the forum -

/thread-13065.html

/thread-10006.html

From Return of Kings -

http://www.returnofkings.com/547/take-co...e-for-free


I think the most important thing in learning is to have questions and solutions because it cements your understanding of the work and also allows you to see your 'weak' points.

Post: #20

I'd recommend the Linus Pauling book. Most of my textbooks are dry and dated, but his hold up.

Post: #21

(11-13-2012 11:10 AM)le prince perdu Wrote:  

(11-13-2012 10:56 AM)at350zguyy Wrote:  I was actually taught by Steve Zumdahl. That guy is super rich just from updating 1 word in his textbook every year or so.

I have a Ph.D. in chemistry, so ask me any question you could possibly imagine.

which book would you recommend me reading? are Zumdahl's books the best when it comes to newbies?

I am going to check out organic chemistry.

Zumdahl is a good start.

Organic chemistry is the truth. In my opinion, drug discovery chemists make a bigger difference in medicine than doctors do since these are the guys isolating and screening for new drug targets and looking at industry scale production of such complex molecules.

One of my favorites is the Fugu toxin, and this is a case study used in many graduate classes I took in school.

Post: #22

PhD? I'm assuming you work in the medicinal field.
I did 25 years in the industrial chemistry trenches. It's left America for good.

Post: #23

(11-13-2012 12:21 PM)ColSpanker Wrote:  PhD? I'm assuming you work in the medicinal field.
I did 25 years in the industrial chemistry trenches. It's left America for good.

Was in pharmaceuticals for two years out of graduate school before jumping ship to pro basketball. And yes, pharma is definitely on its way out.

Post: #24

Pharma management thinks that Wuxi and ChempPartner is all you need for your chemistry needs. They also believe that chemists with 10+ years of experience and proven track records are interchangeable with freshly minted grad students.

If you want to follow the field, a good blog is pipeline.corante.com.

Post: #25

(11-13-2012 04:00 PM)at350zguyy Wrote:  

(11-13-2012 12:21 PM)ColSpanker Wrote:  PhD? I'm assuming you work in the medicinal field.
I did 25 years in the industrial chemistry trenches. It's left America for good.

Was in pharmaceuticals for two years out of graduate school before jumping ship to pro basketball. And yes, pharma is definitely on its way out.

lol what? You play pro bball?