This is a free and open chemistry book. It covers both halves of general chemistry in 21 chapters. Chapters 1 to 11 are General Chemistry 1. Chapters 12 to 21 are General Chemistry 2. The chapter order follows OpenStax Chemistry 2e, so it lines up with most general chemistry courses.
What makes it different
Most chemistry is explained twice here. Once in words, and once as something you can move. Every one of the 126 sections has its own interactive lesson built into the page. You slide the temperature, add the ligand, balance the equation or drag the point across the phase diagram, and the numbers behind the picture update as you go.
The writing keeps sentences short and the words everyday. The chemistry does not get softened to match. Where a plain sentence would blur a fact, the exact statement stays and the next sentence unpacks it. Constants carry their real values and units, and every worked number has been checked twice.
Each chapter also carries figures drawn for it, a worked example wherever there is math, a glossary of about twenty terms and twelve check-yourself items with the reasoning shown.
How to work through it
- Read a section, then play with its interactive. Do not skip past it. Move one control at a time and watch which number follows.
- Predict before you click. Say out loud what will happen when you raise the temperature or add the common ion. Then check. Being wrong here is cheap and it teaches fast.
- Redo the worked examples on paper. Cover the steps and try it cold. Carry the units through every line.
- Finish the chapter with its twelve items, then drill the fifty cards for that chapter until the reason comes as easily as the answer.
- Before an exam, work its study guide, then run the question bank and read every rationale. The games are worth a round the night before.
One honest hour beats four distracted ones. If a chapter will not go in, leave it and come back the next day. Chemistry builds, so the chapter that felt impossible often loosens once the one after it makes sense.
How it runs
Every page is a single file. Open it in any browser and it works. Nothing is downloaded while you read, nothing is saved about you, and no account is needed. That means it also works offline, on a slow connection, or from a folder on a flash drive.
Chapters print cleanly too, so a chapter or a study guide can go to paper or PDF straight from the browser.
Using and sharing it
The book is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. You may copy it, print it, host it and adapt it, as long as you credit the author and keep the same license on whatever you build. The credits and license page has the details and the attribution line to copy.
Where to start
If you are new to it, open the contents and read chapter 1. If you would rather play first, the interactive lab lists all 126 lessons by chapter. The hub has everything in one place.