Customer Reviews

Physical and Chemical Equilibrium for Chemical Engineers

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wonderful book! It's excellent for teaching yourself.

One minor problem - I'd condense the material of the first three chapters into one chapter, as they barely scratch the surface of calculation and aren't quite meaty/quantitative enough for my taste.

I started reading the book at Chapter 4, but, short of skipping Chapter 1 (usually on trite things like "units"), I feel my studies to be incomplete when I start at such a late chapter.

So, five stars for clarity (probably the most important characteristic of a book), but four far-less-weighted-and-therefore-negligible stars for its slow start.

If you are new to this particular subject (=chem thermo) and feel like a beginner, although you passed your 'first year' in thermo (=eng thermo) successfully, then I 100% recommend the book by Noel de Nevers. It *really* tells you about the How's, Why's, Why Not's, What If's, etc. and in so doing, it does a terrific teaching job. Though concise, it is still comprehensive, detailed enough and fully accessible at any point at any time. Speech is easy and directed directly towards the student. You ll get the grasp and overview over the whole subject area, making you feel confident that you can master *any* problem. With its mere 474 pages it not only teaches you the essentials of what you *must* know but also gives you more comprehension and insight than any other text available. Surprisingly this short book includes various exotic chapters ('advanced subjects') found nowhere else. Short, this is truely the *very* best teaching text for real/poor learners, the *very* best intro text for beginners, and the one and only 'Understanding ChemEngThermo'-Book-For-Dummies. I can promise you an enjoyable reading, at times even fun!, and if you re a beginner feeling lost in this subject field and need/want the best teaching support available, then buy this book without hesitation. It *will* teach you a lot, and you *will* learn a lot, promised, even within a short period of time (book is a bit too concise in scope). However, please keep in mind that the DeNevers book is *not* a monograph. rated: Strong Buy if you need a Book-For-Dummies. Drawbacks: Its price is a bit expensive and if, after reading the book/passing your exams, you are not a 'beginner' anymore, you will *not* need the deNevers book any longer! That's why this book is given 4 stars only. A comparable intro text in the subject field of 'Engineering Thermo' (=first course in thermo@MechE students) would be Octave Levenspiel's 'Understanding Engineering Thermo', which is quite similar in writing style, teaching style, intro level, enjoyment/fun, learning effectiveness, etc., so if you know Levenspiel's likeable intro text and liked it, you *will* love the intro text by DeNevers, for sure! Short, *if* you need such a book (beginner looking for a book-for-dummies), then this *is* the very best on the market and you *must* buy and read it. So for you, it would be a 5-stars book, of course!
Please also read my pos reviews of thermo books by Stanley I. Sandler 1999 and Stanley M. Walas 1985. See also my neg review of thermo book by Smith/VanNess/Abbott 2001. For a complete listing of relevant thermo titles have a look at table 8-1, pages 8.2-8.4, in Poling/Prausnitz/O'Connell 5th ed. c2001.

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