Intended for the year long, calculus-based physical chemistry course for science and engineering majors, PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY follows a traditional organization while concentrating on core topics. The text does not cover some higher level topics-for example, photochemistry, molecular beams, thermal physics, and polymers- found in some textbooks, and rarely covered in the undergraduate physical chemistry course, but more fully explains the essential elements of the discipline. Written by a dedicated chemical educator and researcher, this text is intended for those students who are trying to learn physical chemistry-a book that works as a textbook and not as an encyclopedia. Where appropriate, there is some focus on mathematical manipulations, providing students with a review of calculus applications as applied to physical chemistry.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"I think the quality of problems and examples is good, and their number is sufficient. Examples in the manuscript are good, and explained thoroughly, without omitting intermediate steps. This is a big plus for Dr. Ball's text. Again, I think that the writing style is very good, language is simple and clear. I will add here that the author's idea to provide some biographical information and portraits of major physical chemists is excellent."
"The problems and examples seem to be numerous and cover an appropriate range of activities. I do like the breadth of theoretical and numerical examples and problems offered, and I like the continual attention to units--to the point of actually providing examples and problems that address nothing else. Units are an important issue in scientific calculations, one that is often overlooked or under-appreciated by chemistry texts." "Ball's writing style is well-suited for his target audience. His straight-forward, plain English style is easily followed and, I think, would tend to speak TO students rather than OVER them. Students should find his somewhat informal language and candid description to be more palatable than are the traditional formal prose used in many physical chemistry texts. With a textbook that spoke more understandably to begin with, I could imagine spending more time on discussions of concepts rather than discourses on formulation. I think this would be a positive contribution to a learning environment."
"The biggest strength of the manuscript is that it carefully and clearly explains the logic used in the derivations and the examples. The level of explanation, exercises, etc. is consistent. I really liked the way that Dr. Ball had students think about units first and then worry about the numbers. That is a weak point for many students and having the text clearly use this approach is a real plus. The author set out to generate a user-friendly physical chemistry text and he has succeeded in doing it. This manuscript has a straight-ahead no nonsense feel about it. It is very much ordered as this is what you need to know, this is what it means, and this is how you use it."
"I certainly agree with the author's attempts to make the textbook less intimidating and encyclopedic. Many physical chemistry textbooks, with the necessary extensive use of mathematical symbolism, are often quite imposing to the average student. Using as many approaches as practicable to make the presentations more reader friendly is a noble, worthwhile goal. The author's uses of introductory chapter synopses, many clearly worked examples, clear derivations, and end-of-chapter summaries are very helpful." "The author includes many carefully worked example problems. These are very helpful in building confidence and reinforcing the student's understanding of concepts. He shows the method for solving these in considerable detail with explanations and often follows up with some discussion of the significance of the result. The author's writing style is very straightforward, clear, and to the point. It would be quite readable by my students. The vocabulary level is generally appropriate for sophomore/junior college students."
"I was very pleased with the number of examples included in the body of the chapter; in some cases it seemed like a factor of two more than in other texts. I think this is vital to a student's understanding of the material. I was also pleased to see the problems at the end of the chapter grouped by sections. Students must have a series of problems, starting easy and working up in difficulty, in order to work the most challenging problems. I was overall pleased with the balance between simpler and more difficult problems as well as the balance between quantitative and qualitative questions. The latter are too often neglected in physical chemistry texts. I was also pleased to see many problems relating to real world situations. Thermodynamics is much more interesting when applied to problems other than adiabatic expansions of ideal gases! I found the writing style to be conversational and very easy to follow." "The strengths of this manuscript are the detail, mathematical level, and development of the text, the number and quality of example problems, and the selection and range of difficulty in the end of chapter problems."
"The problems and examples seem to be numerous and cover an appropriate range of activities. I do like the breadth of theoretical and numerical examples and problems offered, and I like the continual attention to units--to the point of actually providing examples and problems that address nothing else. Units are an important issue in scientific calculations, one that is often overlooked or under-appreciated by chemistry texts." "Ball's writing style is well-suited for his target audience. His straight-forward, plain English style is easily followed and, I think, would tend to speak TO students rather than OVER them. Students should find his somewhat informal language and candid description to be more palatable than are the traditional formal prose used in many physical chemistry texts. With a textbook that spoke more understandably to begin with, I could imagine spending more time on discussions of concepts rather than discourses on formulation. I think this would be a positive contribution to a learning environment."
"The biggest strength of the manuscript is that it carefully and clearly explains the logic used in the derivations and the examples. The level of explanation, exercises, etc. is consistent. I really liked the way that Dr. Ball had students think about units first and then worry about the numbers. That is a weak point for many students and having the text clearly use this approach is a real plus. The author set out to generate a user-friendly physical chemistry text and he has succeeded in doing it. This manuscript has a straight-ahead no nonsense feel about it. It is very much ordered as this is what you need to know, this is what it means, and this is how you use it."
"I certainly agree with the author's attempts to make the textbook less intimidating and encyclopedic. Many physical chemistry textbooks, with the necessary extensive use of mathematical symbolism, are often quite imposing to the average student. Using as many approaches as practicable to make the presentations more reader friendly is a noble, worthwhile goal. The author's uses of introductory chapter synopses, many clearly worked examples, clear derivations, and end-of-chapter summaries are very helpful." "The author includes many carefully worked example problems. These are very helpful in building confidence and reinforcing the student's understanding of concepts. He shows the method for solving these in considerable detail with explanations and often follows up with some discussion of the significance of the result. The author's writing style is very straightforward, clear, and to the point. It would be quite readable by my students. The vocabulary level is generally appropriate for sophomore/junior college students."
"I was very pleased with the number of examples included in the body of the chapter; in some cases it seemed like a factor of two more than in other texts. I think this is vital to a student's understanding of the material. I was also pleased to see the problems at the end of the chapter grouped by sections. Students must have a series of problems, starting easy and working up in difficulty, in order to work the most challenging problems. I was overall pleased with the balance between simpler and more difficult problems as well as the balance between quantitative and qualitative questions. The latter are too often neglected in physical chemistry texts. I was also pleased to see many problems relating to real world situations. Thermodynamics is much more interesting when applied to problems other than adiabatic expansions of ideal gases! I found the writing style to be conversational and very easy to follow." "The strengths of this manuscript are the detail, mathematical level, and development of the text, the number and quality of example problems, and the selection and range of difficulty in the end of chapter problems."
About the Author
David W. Ball received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Chemistry from Rice University, and his B.S. in Chemistry from Baylor University. He currently serves as a Professor of Chemistry at Cleveland State University. He has served in the past as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and at Rice University. His research interests include: Infrared spectroscopic studies of matrix-isolated species, especially the interaction of transition metal atoms with small molecules; computational chemistry of metal atom molecule interactions and other intermolecular interactions; chemistry of model lubricant compounds and their decomposition products; thermochemistry of new fuel materials; various topics in chemical education. David is affiliated with several professional organizations including the American Chemical Society, Cleveland Technical Societies Council, Ohio Supercomputer Center, Contributing Editor, Spectroscopy, Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair and many more. He has received several awards for outstanding teaching, and publishes extensively in the educational literature. Previous books include a math review book for chemistry students (published by ITP) and a primer on the basics of spectroscopy (published by SPIE Press). Lastly, David is very involved with many university activities: Coordinator of General Chemistry, Member of the Faculty Senate, etc. He has received research grants over the years, provided numerous presentations, and has almost 100 publications.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
High potential for future editions,
By A Customer
This review is from: Physical Chemistry (Hardcover)
At first glance David Ball's text is excellent and because of this I used it to teach my physical chemistry course last year. It is nicely written and easy to read. As with any first edition there are numerous typos - but these are posted on Ball's web page as they are found. The basic thermodynamics and quantum mechanics sections are quite good and I especially like the group theory section - but the statistical mechanics, ESR, and NMR sections are quite poor in my opionion and contain numerous errors (not typos) which I discovered only in teaching these topics in the end of the second semester course. I am currently looking for a new text but I eagerly await a second edition in which these errors will be fixed. This book has a lot of potential and for basic thermodynamics and quantum mechanics it is very good.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Physical Chemistry Book,
By
This review is from: Physical Chemistry (Hardcover)
If you are forced to use Atkins for Physical Chemistry, then do yourself the favor of buying this book. This is by far the best P. Chem. book that I have ever seen. The concepts are clear without watering down the subject. I love this book so much now that P. Chem. finally makes sense to me. I especially love the section on Quantum Mechanics. I use this book primarily as the textbook for my class because it follows closely the material outlined in Atkins stupid, pedantic book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
structured,
This review is from: Physical Chemistry (Hardcover)
I used this book for my first P-chem class and found it to be very structured and easy to use. Every P-chem book will have difficult chapters, but I think with the examples and exercises this book is useful as a resource or to accompany the class lectures.
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43
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- Principles of Colloid and Surface Chemistry (Undergraduate Chemistry Series) by Paul C. Hiemenz on page 57, page 348, and page 456
- Introduction to Soft Matter: Polymers, Colloids, Amphiphiles and Liquid Crystals by Ian W. Hamley on page 45, and page 263
- Environmental Applications of Geochemical Modeling by Chen Zhu in Back Matter
- Universal Water: The Ancient Wisdom and Scientific Theory of Water by West Marrin in Back Matter
- Soil Physical Chemistry, Second Edition by Donald L. Sparks on page 134
See all 43 books citing this book
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