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Chapter 1: A Beginner's Guide to Chemicals

  • Page ID
    422713
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    Are chemicals bad?

    Or are they only bad if they are artificial? Are they safe if they come from natural sources? And what are they anyway? 

    There's a lot of information out there on the hazards of chemicals, some of it real, some of it imaginary, and some of it pure nonsense. How can you tell which is which? This is a chemistry text that integrates concepts from all branches of chemistry - one aim of which is to give you the tools to discern fact from fiction. Our intent is not to use a fire hose to deliver all available information to you (the internet is good for that!), but to give you a foundation to understand how chemicals act and thereby provide you with the language and skills to understand the chemistry that underlies so many fields of study: biology, environmental science, and materials science to name just a few. 

    In this opening chapter we'll begin with a quick (relatively speaking) primer of organic compounds, because they are both ubiquitous and fascinating in their own right. You will learn how to represent their molecular structures, name them, and begin to systematically think about their properties. 

     

    (Photo Credit: Colin Brown, CC NC-BY 2.0)


    Chapter 1: A Beginner's Guide to Chemicals is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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