Customer Reviews

Physical Chemistry (Solutions Manual)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

After reading all the other reviews on this book, one might notice the large gap in opinion on this text. And I think that is justified...For those who really enjoy P-Chem and pour alot of energy and time into the course, this book should be fine; but for those of us who are not particularly fascinated with the inner thermodynamic or kinetic workings of the molecules we've come to love, this book isn't necessarily as explanatory as it could be. Also, the professor one has makes a BIG difference in this course. If one has a professor who uses this book as simply a reference to his/her teaching/lecturing then the book makes a great reference material. But for those professors who are new (like mine) and expect undergraduate CHEM majors to leave their course understanding every single facet of the P-Chem cosmos, using this book as their Bible and lecturing straight from it, then this book is not so great (pretty bad, in fact). However, I must say, the text varies in readability and depth of explanation. Some parts give sufficient explanation and other portions leave students feeling confused at least. That's why I give this book a 3 star rating. I think other books may be more beneficial.

Mathematicians would favor this book. The text is dense and dry. The material is presented in the most boring manner possible. Atkins prefers to explain himself with equations rather than words. The subject matter is not thoroughly explored. No concepts are placed into the "big picture." At best, this book could serve as a decent reference for a chemist or physicist already familiar with the topics and therefore only in need of review. Learning physical chemistry for the first time using this book is a serious chore. I honestly believe that physical chemistry can be a fun, exciting, and challenging subject that is worth learning. This book fails to deliver the material in a manner that does anything but annoy and frustrate. This problem is only compounded by the fact that there are numerous mathematical errors present both in the text and in the solutions of selected problems. If you are stuck using this book because it was required for a class, I suggest you find supplementary material that elaborates better on the many areas in which this book is lacking.

I have read the other reviews and I believe that the students who rate this book poorly are mistaking their inability to grasp physical chemistry with a poor textbook. The textbook is excellent and any good professor can teach physical chemistry from it. It is well organized, starting with some basic thermodynamics background and moving to more complicated thermo. The next section is kinetics, which is also presented not nearly as well as the thermo, but Atkins does a good job nonetheless. Spectroscopy and statistical mechanics come next and although they are not simple to understand, Atkins is concise in his presentation. The remainder of the book is additional material which may or may not be covered in a physical chemistry course. What should also be noted are the appendices at the end. Atkins includes very helpful supplemental material in mathematics which is needed for the thermodynamics discussion. The tables are somewhat lacking, but any good reference book can supplement this information. Overall, I would say the book is well worth the money and I have yet to see another physical chemistry text which contains as much information as well presented as it is.

I really can not understand the poor reviews I have read about this book. It is very well organized and Atkins makes the concepts easy to understand. It is also fun and easy to read. For example Atkins explains various details that one would find other engineering or science books skip over assuming the reader is following and understanding the various leaps in logic taken during the explaination of the topic presented. I would also like to add that I am a normal student I do not learn things super fast or easily, so understand my review comes not form a genious, but a normal average Joe like yourself.

Although bestselling, this book is awkward, boring, hard to follow. I predict McQuarrie & Simon's Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach will finally put out of business the dozen or so poorly written P. Chem texts, starting with Atkins...

I used the 2nd edition, 1983, in my undergraduate physical chemistry courses, because one of the lecturers strongly recommended it. Physical chemistry is not an easy subject, but this book provides both concepts and machinery to give a good general grounding. The shaded boxes are useful for the core material.

Certainly it wasn't deep enough for the specialist spectroscopic work of my Ph.D. thesis. But this wasn't its intention - it was pretty good for my non-spectroscopist classmates. It's unreasonable to demand great depth in selected parts of a huge field like physical chemistry in a general text book. It would be hard to beat.

For some uncanny reason, every P.Chem professor seem to agree on one thing -- P.Chem by PW Atkins is a great book for students. If only they asked a serious student(5 years ago)like myself what I thought about this book. I would have clearly said no. This book has its good point and that is being simple. However, in doing so, it has neglected the true P.Chem students who wanted to have a better understanding of the theory. The quantum mechanics section is just too simple to satisfy any curious mind. It leaves more questions than it answers. If you are a serious P.Chemistry student like I once was, please use P.Chemistry by Ross and Berry(Unfortunately,I think it's already out of print) Even better, take a QM course in the physics department.

Some people follow this text as if it were a cult book. I used it as a reference material (because I do not major in Chemistry) for a one-semester course. I enjoyed reading the book for it was simple and straightforward, not beating around the bush - quite the sort you love when the course is not going to help you further.

An excellent book - easy to read.

Mr. Atkins' treatment of basic physical chemistry is at best useless and at worst confusing, misleading and last but not least extremely boring. Does not promote any interest in the discipline - none whatsoever. The diagrams in the book (which the author claims the credit for) are sad. I have been a teacher for 31 years and I have never in my life seen such an attempt to explaine these fundamental issues. Besides I have never had so many stupid questions from the students since I started using this book.

Atkins does a decent job of explaining physical chemistry in the text; however, his problems (and subsequent solutions) leave much to be desired. Even in this SIXTH edition, many of the solutions are incorrect, and many errors abound both in the solutions manual and the text that cause much anguish to the struggling PChem student. Also, it bothers me that the solutions manual does not contain all of the problems. What is the point of a solutions manual if it doesn't contain solutions? Ultimately, it would probably be more beneficial for the student to be able to search through the text and manual to figure out the problems, but most often the manual is best used for a quick hint or two to get going on the problem. It's very frustrating when a student is having problems, and has no where to turn to because the authors have decided to skip giving a solution to the problem. In addition, many of the solutions are wrtten in such a concise manner that while professors may easily follow the solution, students generally find it difficult to make the jumps from step to step. All in all, I have been very disappointed with this purchase. I would recommend to all students: Stick with the book, the solutions manual won't be of any help.