The aim of this book is to provide a self-instructional text to assist students in understanding the basic principles of equation balancing, mole calculations and simple thermodynamics, which are fundamental to oxidation and reduction. It is a well balanced introduction to the topic which begins with basics and develops through to more advanced areas. The book is therefore valuable both as an introduction and as a revision text. Each programme is designed to follow its predecessor, both in content and in level. To ensure that the student understands the content fully, every programme ends with a test and revision notes. This allows the student to monitor his own progress and cover again the areas with which he has difficulty. Each frame in the text ends with a question for which the answer is given in the following frame. In this way the student appreciates the need to understand the concepts in a logical order and is less likely to have problems when a subsequent reference is made to an earlier topic. The author has wide experience in using the programmed learning approach, and many ideas and reactions of students who have used these programmes have been incorporated. In addition, supplementary software is available which allows the student to extend his/her experience of oxidation state diagrams and a number of related concepts in programme 5.