1st Edition

Energy, Matter, and Change An Introduction

By William B. Tucker Copyright 2025
    296 Pages 187 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    296 Pages 187 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    This textbook serves as an introduction to the field of chemistry, aimed at secondary school students, and it assumes no prior knowledge on the readers’ part. As an introductory text, the book emphasizes fundamental skills that are necessary for chemistry, and science generally. This includes an emphasis on good writing and a focus on problem solving, with problems incorporated throughout the text. To help prepare students to pursue chemistry further, all information presented is in accord with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s style and technical guidelines and supported through citations to the primary literature.

    The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

    Chapter 1 Introduction

    Chapter 2 Matter and change

    Chapter 3 Measurement and significant figures

    Chapter 4 Conversion factors, dimensional analysis, and chemical amounts

    Chapter 5 Energy 

    Chapter 6 Atomic structure

    Chapter 7 Nuclear change 

    Chapter 8 Electron configuration 

    Chapter 9 Periodic trends  

    Chapter 10 Chemical formulae and nomenclature 

    Chapter 11 Bonding 

    Chapter 12 Three-dimensional structure

    Chapter 13 Intermolecular interactions

    Chapter 14 States and physical changes

    Chapter 15 Describing and quantifying chemical change

    Chapter 16 Chemical reactions: electron transfer and electron sharing

    Appendices

    Biography

    William Tucker’s passion for chemistry was inspired by his high school teacher Gary Osborn. He left Maine to pursue Chemistry at Middlebury College, and after graduating in 2010 he decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Sandro Mecozzi, where he developed semifluorinated triphilic surfactants for hydrophobic drug delivery. After earning his Ph.D. in 2015, he took a fellowship at Boston University as a Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow. There he co-taught organic chemistry while working in the laboratory of Dr. John Caradonna. In the Caradonna laboratory, he worked on developing a surface-immobilized iron-oxidation catalyst for the oxidation of C–H bonds using dioxygen from the air as the terminal oxidant. Throughout all of this work, his passion has always been for teaching and working with students both in and out of the classroom. He has been lucky for the past six years to work at Concord Academy, where his students have, through their questions, pushed him to think deeper and more critically about chemistry. Their curiosity inspires him, and their inquisitiveness inspired his writing.