Book excerpt: Work more effectively and get hands-on experience with this Laboratory Manual! Designed to accompany Snyder’s The Extraordinary Chemistry of Ordinary Things, 4th Edition, this lab manual contains twenty-five laboratory exercises, all written in a clear, concise, and unintimidating fashion. The themes emphasized closely parallel those of the text, incorporating experiments with both consumer and environmental applications. Snyder’s The Extraordinary Chemistry of Ordinary Things, 4th Edition is known in the market for its strong consumer emphasis in which it takes a unique approach by using consumer products to illustrate chemical principles. Each area – chemistry and consumerism – reinforces the other in examinations of gasoline and petroleum, detergents, foods and food additives, plastics, and more.