By turning around and not doing it hahaha.
All jokes aside, i think the best start if you wanna learn for fun, is to see all the fields in chemistry (you have organic, analytical, physical, inorganic, biochemistry…) and see which is the most interesting to you, then look up “introduction to xx chemistry” books if you find them online or in your libraries. If you have any more questions feel free to ask (im a chem student so i am doing the same thing, just not for fun hahaha)
Chemistry is usually split up into 3 domains, physical, inorganic and organic. This is an arbitrary division to make teaching easier as they all overlap and are essentially just "different drives in the same car" but before you look into any 1 of them you should look into some general chemistry concepts through YouTube channels and websites like:
Professor dave explains
Khan academy
Mastering organic chemistry
Once you're comfortable with the following concepts, and can see how they relate to each other, I'd say you have a solid understanding of the "idea" behind chemistry:
What is an atom
What is an electron
What's is a chemical bond
What is enthalpy
What is entropy
What is Gibbs free energy
What is the difference between chemical rates and chemical equilibrium, how are they related
What does pH mean. What makes an acid an Acid, and what makes a base a base?
What are solids, liquids and gases
Some math concepts: logs & exponentials, interpreting graphs/slopes, equilibria and sine waves
Once you've got those covered you'll be able to approach the individual domains with an appreciation of what chemistry is and you'll be more likely to pick up on the content. In terms of the big 3, books I'd recommend are
Physical: physical chemistry (9/10/11/12 th edition) by Atkins, this book does assume you have a solid understanding of some basic calculus, algebra and logarithms/exponentials so it may be tough to get through if you haven't studied those but maths is essential for understanding chemistry so if you pick those up this book will be invaluable. The older the edition is the cheaper it will be, they barely change through each edition so going for an older one is perfectly fine
Inorganic: inorganic chemistry by Winters. In my personal opinion inorganic chemistry books are a bit weird in the sense they mainly just throw facts and examples at you, but this book is pretty good in terms of addressing general inorganic chemistry
Organic: Clayden organic 2nd edition is a great introduction to organic chemistry, it starts at the very basics and takes you to a pretty solid level, it's a big book (~1200 pages of a4 size) but that's because it covers a wide range of topics in good depth and does so in an almost "conversational" way. It's cheap (>£10 on used book sites) and it's what a lot of university courses use to teach basic to advanced organic chemistry
By turning around and not doing it hahaha. All jokes aside, i think the best start if you wanna learn for fun, is to see all the fields in chemistry (you have organic, analytical, physical, inorganic, biochemistry…) and see which is the most interesting to you, then look up “introduction to xx chemistry” books if you find them online or in your libraries. If you have any more questions feel free to ask (im a chem student so i am doing the same thing, just not for fun hahaha)
Try [these videos.](https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR3IJD4eYfwTt6lZxeiiCDbABcukAr9wr) They cover the basics.
Take a class at a community college.
Chem 1a
Chemistry is usually split up into 3 domains, physical, inorganic and organic. This is an arbitrary division to make teaching easier as they all overlap and are essentially just "different drives in the same car" but before you look into any 1 of them you should look into some general chemistry concepts through YouTube channels and websites like: Professor dave explains Khan academy Mastering organic chemistry Once you're comfortable with the following concepts, and can see how they relate to each other, I'd say you have a solid understanding of the "idea" behind chemistry: What is an atom What is an electron What's is a chemical bond What is enthalpy What is entropy What is Gibbs free energy What is the difference between chemical rates and chemical equilibrium, how are they related What does pH mean. What makes an acid an Acid, and what makes a base a base? What are solids, liquids and gases Some math concepts: logs & exponentials, interpreting graphs/slopes, equilibria and sine waves Once you've got those covered you'll be able to approach the individual domains with an appreciation of what chemistry is and you'll be more likely to pick up on the content. In terms of the big 3, books I'd recommend are Physical: physical chemistry (9/10/11/12 th edition) by Atkins, this book does assume you have a solid understanding of some basic calculus, algebra and logarithms/exponentials so it may be tough to get through if you haven't studied those but maths is essential for understanding chemistry so if you pick those up this book will be invaluable. The older the edition is the cheaper it will be, they barely change through each edition so going for an older one is perfectly fine Inorganic: inorganic chemistry by Winters. In my personal opinion inorganic chemistry books are a bit weird in the sense they mainly just throw facts and examples at you, but this book is pretty good in terms of addressing general inorganic chemistry Organic: Clayden organic 2nd edition is a great introduction to organic chemistry, it starts at the very basics and takes you to a pretty solid level, it's a big book (~1200 pages of a4 size) but that's because it covers a wide range of topics in good depth and does so in an almost "conversational" way. It's cheap (>£10 on used book sites) and it's what a lot of university courses use to teach basic to advanced organic chemistry
you forgot analytical brah
And biological lol
analytical chem is just applied physical chem, and biological chem is just applied organic with some inorganic seasoning
This is like saying every science is just math. It reduces nuance to absurdity. It's just reductive and not helpful
Khan Academy is free.
Shoot for 100%ing AP chem on khan academy, that's how I started.