Periodic Table: An Exploration of the Elements

by Joel Levy

Periodic Table is a fascinating, interactive guide to the history and uses of chemistry, with particular reference to the famous periodic table of elements. It contains clear and concise explanations of different chemical concepts, as well as profiles of key scientists and their discoveries. A unique feature of the book is its simple, step-by-step exercises. Some of these have everyday applications, others are theoretical puzzles, but all are designed to challenge the reader and test their newly acquired knowledge.

The perfect companion for beginners and experts alike, Periodic Table is the ideal guide to chemistry from ancient times to the modern day. Clearly and effectively, it conveys the basic elements of chemistry to everyone, no matter the level of ability.

Genres: Science, Stem, Nonfiction, Reference

176 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 2011

About the author

Joel Levy is a writer and journalist specializing in science and history. He is the author of over a dozen books, including The Little Book of Conspiracies and Scientific Feuds: From Galileo to the Human Genome Project. Phobiapedia is his first book for children.

Reviews

[Aubrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Biochemistry graduate, this book really gives an in depth explanation about the basic stuffs in basic Chemistry. Most of the time we see periodic table as just a compilation of all the elements, but it's more than that.
This book gives the history on how the elements came about. Although one may feel that it's not important to know the history, but they don't realize how much you can learn from the history.
I have to admit that I learn a lot more after reading this book. I never got bored throughout. A must read!

[Sandra Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has a love/hate relationship with chemistry (I blame my college Chem courses), this was a very enjoyable read. It’s not necessarily an introductory chemistry book, but it was very good at covering the basics and giving real life examples of chemistry (after all, chemistry is everywhere). I appreciated how there were pages dedicated to the alchemists/chemists who contributed to the advancement of chemistry and how each individual mentioned was inspired by the previous one. Proud of myself for picking up a chemistry book and actually enjoying it. 9/10

[Daniel G · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book begins with a promise that you won’t need any specialized knowledge as everything will be explained in clear and concise language. I found this to be untrue. One reviewer who loved the book was a biochemistry graduate. I am not. This may have been a good book for a chemist, but not for the general layman. I feel I’m a fairly intelligent guy, but while I enjoyed much of the history of the science of chemistry, I found the writer never explained himself, his highly specialized terminology, or the concepts he got into with the exercises. This is not the book with which to begin a study of chemistry; at least not in my opinion. Yes, I finished it, but it was a chore to do so.

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Made it seem like it was going to be good for beginners, but really for people who have a modest amount of knowledge. The profiles of some of the scientists where interesting. The parts where the equations were done, not so much.