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The Joy Of Chemistry by Cathy Cobb and Monty L. Fetterolf
01/05/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Prometheus Books. 393 page illustrated and indexed hardback. Price: $26.00 (US). ISBN: 978-1-59102-231-2. Buy The Joy Of Chemistry in the USA - or Buy The Joy Of Chemistry in the UK  check out website: www.prometheusbooks.com
After my praise for Prometheus' book, 'The Joy Of Physics' that I reviewed the other month, a query to them about the earlier volume, 'The Joy Of Chemistry', had this book arrived through my letterbox and information on how well its selling. Reading it, I can understand why. The book is loaded with experiments for the reader to try out and not written in a stuffy way. The first experiment is create carbon dioxide to shoot a bung out of a bottle. Looking through the list of things required shouldn't cause much of a problem for people this side of the Atlantic to get as well by the way without the need for a chemistry set.
The experiments fall into a category that was once described to me at work as being 'bucket chemistry'. A few dollops of this and that together and you get to see a result. They get a little more complex than that as you go through the book but they re-enforce points in the respective chapters which should make it easier to remember. In some respects, I wish the authors had kept to some basic written protocols like listing ingredients and objective before method if for no other reason than to stop having to read the instructions several time in the build-up to getting anything done. Maybe they do things differently in America but organising thoughts goes a long way to getting the right attitude to these experiments, especially as there are so many reminders to wear protective goggles and rubber gloves. Understanding why some protocols like this are useful would aim the chemistry student as much as practical language.
Oddly enough, a lot of this book doesn't spend its time in the chemistry of elements but looking at how they bond together and atomic structure. They succeed in explaining these bonds and their relative stability better than I was taught when I was at college. Understanding how elements bond helps to understand the workings of the Periodic Table and its importance in how various elements readily create compounds. Although you're unlikely to get bogged down in all of this, it does make sense to only read a couple of chapters a day to let it all sink in. I'm sure those without a working knowledge of chemistry are going to do a lot ore re-reading along the way to ensure it sinks in properly.
There is also some emphasis on how much we need chemistry in our lives and its overall importance. Too often we take such things for granted, even to the point of forgetting that even such as cooking meals is really a matter of applied chemistry.
If you want a grounding in chemistry then this is a useful primer to get. I suspect parents will find it a useful way to...er...bond with their children if they try some of these experiments out together. Certainly, a teen-ager struggling with his or her chemistry class at school is going to find it an asset.
If I'm to be critical of anything then its at the end where in the appendixes, elements are listed in a variety of ways. I think it might have been better to have included a few more experiments or even dealt with the electro-chemical series and other tit-bits of useful knowledge.
That aside, I think any reader will come away from this book better informed on chemistry and might even develop a love for experiments.
GF Willmetts
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