The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into The Land Of The Chemical Elements (Science Masters Series) [Hardcover]

P. W. Atkins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465072658 | ISBN-13: 978-0465072651 | Publication Date: July 14, 1995 | Edition: 1St Edition

Come on a journey into the heart of matter—and enjoy the process!—as a brilliant scientist and entertaining tour guide takes you on a fascinating voyage through the Periodic Kingdom, the world of the elements. The periodic table, your map for this trip, is the most important concept in chemistry. It hangs in classrooms and labs throughout the world, providing support for students, suggesting new avenues of research for professionals, succinctly organizing the whole of chemistry. The one hundred or so elements listed in the table make up everything in the universe, from microscopic organisms to distant planets. Just how does the periodic table help us make sense of the world around us? Using vivid imagery, ingenious analogies, and liberal doses of humor P. W. Atkins answers this question. He shows us that the Periodic Kingdom is a systematic place. Detailing the geography, history and governing institutions of this imaginary landscape, he demonstrates how physical similarities can point to deeper affinities, and how the location of an element can be used to predict its properties. Here’s an opportunity to discover a rich kingdom of the imagination kingdom of which our own world is a manifestation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The periodic table of the elements is the grand, unified theory of chemistry. In The Periodic Kingdom, P. W. Atkins imagines the table as a landscape, with fields of metals, pools of mercury and bromine, clouds of gases, and the offshore island of rare earths. He describes the history of this metaphoric kingdom and shows how its laws are those of physical chemistry: they are the expression in the visible world of the invisible dance of subatomic particles. The Periodic Kingdom is an excellent book for students at any level who want to see the connections between chemistry, physics, and "real life." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

An extended metaphorical description of the periodic table of chemical elements is offered in this compact volume by Oxford chemist and author Atkins (Molecules, Physical Chemistry). The presentation presumes no scientific background. Likening the arrangement of the periodic table to a landscape and the sections denoting individual elements to geographic regions ("an imaginary kingdom, a land of chemists' dreams"), Atkins discusses in topographical analogies the elements' physical and chemical properties. Histories of the formation and discovery of elements and of the formulation of the periodic table itself are surveyed. Later chapters adroitly introduce the basics of atomic physical chemistry. The fantastical imagery, maintained throughout, conveys the author's passion for his subject. Unfortunately, it's remarkably tedious. This work deserves the esteem of connoisseurs of chemistry and perhaps of impressionable youth, yet seems unlikely to hold the attention of a more general audience. Illustrations.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1St Edition edition (July 14, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465072658
• ISBN-13: 978-0465072651
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,021,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent *popular* science book about chemistry., October 26, 2000

By 

Uri Raz (Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into The Land Of The Chemical Elements (Science Masters Series) (Paperback)

The previous reviewers split between two camps - those who think this book is oversimplified and those who like the book.

The main point is that this is NOT an academic text book, so that somebody who studies chemistry academically wouldnt benefit much from it, but rather a popular science book, intended to present complicated material that should be accessable to everybody in a way understandable to the average Joe.

That the explanations are simplified is the only solution, considering that the average Joe didnt study quantum mechanics.

The book is not big, but it's supposed to be fun and easy to read, and it's price tag isnt big either.

I like this book a lot - it presents the material in a readable and enjoyable way, making this basic science (and shouldnt everybody understand basic chemistry ?) accessable to everybody.

Though I studied chemistry in high-school and a bit of inorganic chemistry in university, I enjoyed the way the presentation and got another angle on the subject.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Water-Down Chemistry, September 4, 2000

By 

Matthew M. Yau "Voracious reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into The Land Of The Chemical Elements (Science Masters Series) (Paperback)

If you don't know a thing about science, particularly chemistry, or someone who prefers to read science in a casual approach, go for this book.

If you're hard-score sciencist and especially a chemist, go ahead but don't expect this book to fulfill all your savors and wonders.

I tend to agree on one of the previous review commenting on this book being a 6th grade reader - well, the point is, what's wrong with it being an easy and pleasurable reading? If Atkins gives a detailed, hard-core account of the periodic table in this book, the non-science folks will probably not even make to page 5! Less all the quantum mechanics, wave mechanics and Bohr model and electron spin.... This book certainly spices up readers' curiosity with interesting easy-to-relate analogies. For those who would like to read some chemistry on an airplane flying across the continent, this book will definitely not wear you out. Chemists, chemistry students and hard-core scientists...it's ok to take a break from all the obscure theories and amuse at Atkin's canny account of the periodic table that is so familiar to you.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Periodic Kingdom is an excellent book., September 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into The Land Of The Chemical Elements (Science Masters Series) (Paperback)

As a pharmacist, I've taken years of advanced chemistry courses. I wish that I'd had this book (The Periodic Kingdom) available during pharmacy school- it would have helped to elucidate some of the most fundamental, yet hard-to-grasp concepts in chemistry. Right now, I'm using Professor Atkins' insightful illumination of the atomic world to help explain these concepts to my 6th-grade son. It beats the dry 6th-grade text any day. I can't praise this book enough.