BEFORE YOU BEGIN
You are oneofthe very luckiest ofpeople-tobe growing up in the Ageof
Science.Fora long while, boys and girls used to say,"Iwish I were apioneer,"
or"Iwish there weresomethingleft todiscover." Nowadays,it is perfectly
clearthatscience offers a great varietyofnew things to discover andthatmany
ofthe new pioneers will be scientists.
Physical science is the studyofmatterand energy.Chemistryis oneofthe
physical sciences.'Itteaches us muchaboutthe different kindsofmatterand
how they behave. Itteaches how different chemicals react with eachother,
sothatyou can tell inadvancewhat willhappenwhen you mixcertainchemicals
together.This knowledge has helped chemists decide what fuels to use topropel
rockets and push satellites into space. But you cannot work with nuclear
reactorsorrocketfuels until you first learn thefundamentalfactsofchemistry.
Thisbookwill help you to dojustthat.
Rememberthatyoudidn'tlearn toroller-skate,or to ride a bicycle, until you
couldbalanceyourselfonyourfeet. Youcannotdevise new chemicalreactions
until you can balance chemicalequations.It'sfun to mix things in alaboratory
and to guess or predictthe results. You may not always becorrectinyour
predictions,nor will you always becorrectin your mixing, but it will always be
fun toaccountfor every singleatominvolved in a chemical reaction. Youwill
learn how to do thisgradually,as you do theexperimentsin thisbook.
You mustrememberto follow the safety rules, to be neat and careful, to avoid
contaminating your chemicals, and to be especially conscientious about
reportingobservationsaccurately. A truescientist would never put away a
dirty testtubeor falsify areport.
In thisbookyou will learn thelanguageofchemistry and findthatit is not a
bit mysterious, butsimple andinterestingto use. And when you read science
articles in newspapersandmagazines you will surpriseyourselfbyunderstanding
them so well.Ifyou enjoy this workanddo it well, you willprobablycontinue
it;then maybe some day you will make a great discoverythatwillbroadenthe
horizonsofscience.
Before doing anyexperimentin thisbook,you should always read the in-
structionsthroughforthatexperiment. Then you will know before you begin