The purpose of this book is to interpret more sensitively some of the offerings of the standard text book of general chemistry. As a supplement thereto, it covers various aspects of formulation and stoichiometry that are frequently treated far too perfunctorily or, in many instances, are not considered at all. The inadequate attention often accorded by the comprehensive text to many topics within its proper purview arises, understandably enough, from the numerous broad and highly varied objectives set for the first year of the curriculum for modern chemistry in colleges and universities. For the serious student this means, more often than not, the frustrations of questions unanswered.
The amplification that this book proffers in the immediate area of its subject covers the equations representing internal redox reactions, not only of the simple but, also, of the multiple disproportionations of which the complexities often discourage an undertaking despite the challenge they offer: distinctions to be observed in the balancing of equations in con- trasting alkali-basic and ammonia-basic reaction media; quantitative contributions made by the ionization or dissociation effects of electrolytes to the colligative properties of their solutions; intensive application of the universal reaction principle of chemical equivalence to the stoichiometry of oxidation and reduction.