Physical Science: A Smorgasbord of Knowledge

After a long time in the works, I’m happy to announce the first installments in my middle school physical science textbook named Physical Science:  A Smorgasbord of Knowledge. Though it’s still a work in progress, new chapters will appear as fast as I can write them.  If you’re looking for a high school chemistry text instead, try my other text Chemistry: The Awesomest Science.

As always, if you find mistakes in any of these chapters, please email me at misterguch@chemfiesta.com so I can fix them.  Enjoy the book! (Updated 10/4/16)

• Introduction:  (.odt format)(.pdf format)
• Chapter 1:  What is Science? (odt format)(.pdf format) What is science? Scientific disciplines, scientific method, SI units, data collection and presentation, graphing.
• Chapter 2:  The Care and Feeding of Matter (.odt format)(.pdf format). Elements, compounds, mixtures, chemical/physical properties and changes.
• Chapter 3:  Solids, Liquids, and Gases (.odt format)(.pdf format) Intro to the states of matter, intermolecular forces, phase changes, and gas laws.
• Chapter 4:  Atoms:  Our Very Tiny Friends (.odt format)(.pdf format)  Models of the atom from the earliest Greek models through quantum mechanics.
• Chapter 5:  The Periodic table (.odt format)(.pdf format)  Everything you want to know about the periodic table, metals/nonmetals/metalloids, and so forth.
• Chapter 6:  Chemical Bonding (.odt format)(.pdf format)  Ionic, covalent, and metallic bonding.  Naming compounds.
• Chapter 7:  The Magic of Chemical Reactions (.odt format)(.pdf format) Equations, moles, stoichiometry, thermodynamics, kinetics, equilibria.
• Chapter 8:  Solutions, Acids, and Bases (.odt format)(.pdf format) Definitions of each, concentration, pH, neutralization reactions.
• Chapter 9:  Organic Chemistry (.odt format)(.pdf format)  Definitions, some common organic compounds, intro to biochemistry, food labeling.
• Chapter 10:  Nukes (.odt format)(.pdf format)  Radiation, half-life, carbon dating, fission and fusion.

For those of you interested in seeing what’s on the way, here’s the status of the rest of the book as of 10/4/16:

• Chapter 11:  Moving around.  Introduction to speed/velocity/acceleration.  Status: Written, awaits editing.
• Chapter 12:  Force and Newton’s Laws.  Newton’s laws, forces.  Status:  Written, awaits editing.
• Chapter 13:  Fluids.  Forces in air and water.  Status:  Planning stage.
• Chapter 14:  Work and power.  Work, power, machines, mechanical advantage. Status:  Planning stage.
• Chapter 15:  Energy (again).  More complete discussion of energy conversion and law of conservation of energy than in chapter 7.  Status:  Planning stage.
• Chapter 16:  Getting Hot in Here!  Heat in thermodynamics.  Status:  Planning stage.
• Chapter 17:  Ride the Wave.  Mechanical and sound waves.  Status:  Planning Stage.
• Chapter 18:  Electromagnetic Fun!  EM waves, light, color.  Status:  Planning Stage.
• Chapter 19:  Taking a Look at Optics.  Optics.  Status:  Planning stage.
• Chapter 20:  Zap!  Electricity in action!  Electricity and circuits.  Status:  Planning stage.
• Chapter 21:  The Magic of Magnets.  Electromagnetism.  Status:  Planning.
• Chapter 22:  I Am Earth’s Guts.  The stuff under the earth.  Status:  Planning.
• Chapter 23:  I Am Earth’s Skin.  The geology of the surface of earth.  Status: Planning.
• Chapter 24:  The Weather Blows.  Climate, seasons, water cycle, etc. Status: Planning.
• Chapter 25:  Earth’s Neighborhood.  The solar system.  Status:  Planning.
• Chapter 26:  Taking a Long Trip.  The Universe.  Status:  Planning.

Other information:  The book, like most things I’ve written lately, is licensed via Creative Commons CC-BY-NA 4.0 license.  Feel free to use it without asking, but don’t sell it!