Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I returned to college to further my education this year after working as a High School Chemistry and Biology teacher for the last 5 years, and your text "Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac) 8th Edition" is the required text that we are using for my Quantitative Analysis course. Myself and numerous other students in the class have found ourselves completely exasperated with the text for numerous reasons. Some of the reasons are as follows:

1. Formulas written incorrectly, while the definition/derivation is written properly right next to it, or vice versa.
2. Incorrect answers to the end of the chapter questions given in the back of the book.
3. The end of the chapter questions will often have no previous examples shown in the chapter, or in the chapters prior to it. Essentially there is no guide or basis to begin a question.
4. Asking for something in a way that is so convoluted that one has no idea what is being asked.
5. Suddenly using or asking for a term that has never been used in the book. Such as asking for "molar solubility"...nothing in text as to referred, nothing in the index, and nothing in the glossary.
6. Your solved examples within the chapter are atrocious, in that they are of virtually no use when trying to use them as a guide to the end of the chapter questions. And thank you for skipping/not showing steps or assuming things in the problems when they are shown.

These are great given that one comes to consider the questions, Did I make an algebraic error in solving? Was the formula given the correct one, and was it even given correctly? Did I do it correctly, and is it just the wrong answer given in the back of the text?

I have taken into consideration that I have been out of school for a while and that I may not be as sharp as I used to as far as some of the more complicated calculations, because I have not had much practice recently, however, when one is trying to learn from a book that makes it so hard to do anything with it, it makes it about as useful as a paperweight, which is about the best use I have for it now. A $100+ paperweight.

I thought that the mistakes were due to an early edition text, but with a simple view of the front of this book one can readily see that this is the 8th edition...the EIGHTH edition! One would think that after writing the same book 8 times, these errors and some general refinements may have taken place; thank you for the exception to the rule.

In all my years of school, I have come across many books, both used to learn from as well as ones to teach from, and I have never found a more poorly done text.

We, the students and professor, have created a website solely dedicated to the errors or oddities that we have so far found in the text: Needless to say, it continues to grow.

I will say that it is nice to see you incorporating Excel and other software into the text, which is beneficial in its use in Industry and presentation.

Thought you might want to know...thanks.

Overall, the book is average. Towards the end when you start reviewing different techniques like voltammetry, potentiometry, spectrometry, and seperations the author explains the material fairly well (and has the least in text problems). I noticed a lot of errors in the book for the in text examples so be careful when checking your answer. I bought the solutions manual to this book and a couple of questions in the manual actually stated that the answers in the back of the book were incorrect. Be very careful from chapters 9-20, as I noticed a few examples had math errors. Also, at least for me, the mathmatics were derived, but not explained as to understand why they add a new term or perform an operation. I would have liked to see them relate the math to the concept better than they did. If you sit with this book (I mean really sit with it) you'll do fine. This is not a text nor a course that you can cram for. It has to be studied everyday of the week.

I have had nothing but problems with this book. The practice problems in the chapter do not reflect the ones at the end of the chapter, which pretty much leaves it up to you to figure out what is going on. The chapters are not well written in the first place! Very hard to follow! There is no supplemental solution manual to follow along with so you can see how the practice problems were solved. I could go on and on. In general, possibly the worst chemistry text I have ever had to use.

Reasonably solid text, but far to many errors. A source of frusrtration for anyone trying to learn quickly.

There's no need to say anything else; it's all been covered by the other reviewers. It is absolutely ridiculous that an 8th edition can still pass with so many errors like this piece.

I am just sitting here reading this book, studying for a huge exam tomorrow morning, and I am just getting so incredibly frustrated with this book and decided that I should let it out on here. Oh my God, there is a mistake on like every friggin page... and to make matters worse, all the mistakes are right smack-dab in the middle of an example problem. So there you are, trying to learn how to work certain problems, and all of a sudden, there's something that just doesnt seem to make any sense. And the whole time you're thinking that you're stupid and you just cant figure out the correct way to do the problem, until a wasted-hour later, you finally realize... "oh, its just ANOTHER stupid mistake these idiots made, and i thought i was retarded." Grrrr, this is killin me. I cannot freakin believe that they could actually charge $140.00 for a book no one even bothered to proofread. okay, so point of the story is... this book sucks, dont buy it if you can get around it, i'd recommend.

My complaints about this book have been covered in other reviews but I wanted to add my low-star rating. The Henderson-Hasselbalch equation is given one paragraph of space which refers back to four other equations in the text. Understanding the use of this popular equation requires a convoluted page-flipping to try to work through the author's many equations leading up to it. (And by leading up, I do not mean to imply there's a logical conceptual sequence.) As others have written, the chapter review questions aren't covered adequately in the text and the questions themselves aren't always clear. The Solutions Manual for the text is worthless, tossing out more equations and giving no indications of where the numbers used come from. If you're a professor looking at this book for a class, please keep looking. This isn't the book students need.

If you have to get the book for a class..do, but the book itself has many errors even when it's already in a later edition. the answers in the back is not always correct and there are typos in formulas. There are good textbook in which you would want to keep for reference, but this one is not one of them.

Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry is a (poorly written) reference manual for someone who already knows analytical chemistry. The author's "lessons" are obscured by paragraphs of impassable ramblings. Examples often miss logical steps that are crucial to understanding the problem at hand. Homework problems at the end of the chapter are nothing like what is "taught" in the accompanying chapter. Save yourself the misery of reading this and buy another textbook.

Obviously I am a disgruntled chemistry student. I will be graduating Cum Laude this spring, and I just suffered through Quantitative Analysis using this book. The problems do not match the examples, there is little background given to the concepts described, and there is no study guide that shows the methods needed to solve problems. My Thermal Physics instructor finally gave up using another Saunders book for the same reasons. Saunders books are more devoted to working problems than describing or teaching the processes that occur. I urge any instructors considering this book to look for a different text!!