2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
best way to learn thermo, August 26, 2009
This review is from: Thermodynamics in Materials Science, Second Edition (Hardcover)
This is in reference to the 1st edition.
What a great book.
This is the way thermo should be taught!! Don't you hate how thermo is boring and doesn't make any sense? I took a thermo class as an undergrad using a different textbook, and it didn't make any sense. I was constantly lost, trying to catch up by learning things backwards. Most thermo books try to teach you thermo by either one of two horrible methods:
1. reverse-engineer the phase diagram, or some other example.
2. memorize the equations and apply them.
Instead, this book walks you through the derivation of the equations that people use in thermo. It even spells out the mathematics you need to work through the concepts. You don't have to memorize anything. The gradual buildup of knowledge and principles, as ordered in this book, is the only way people like me can learn thermodynamics. I used this textbook in grad school and thermodynamics finally made sense.
YOU MUST endure through the first few chapters before you begin to appreciate the book. If you stop midway, it will be a total waste of your time.
My only grip is that there were numerous typos in the 1st edition, and each reprint had different typos in different places. My version had a typo in one of the state functions which really messed me up. I hope the 2nd edition does not have any of those problems.
Since it is primarily focused on teaching you thermodynamics, I don't think it is very useful as a "quick" reference material. In other words, it teaches you how to fish, but doesn't give you the fish. If you want a reference, I believe there are books with more depth and breadth out there.
I don't think it is worth buying unless you intend to sit down and read through the first ten chapters. The latter chapters are all optional and add some breadth. But really, you are not going to buy this book for its treatment of electrochemistry.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Only textbook I read twice, March 25, 2004
I used this textbook, taught by the author, as an undergraduate, and again for clarification in graduate school. Not only is Dr. DeHoff's book clear and logical, it dovetails nicely with the more advanced materials thermodynamics textbook by Dr. Claude Lupis. Now that Dr. DeHoff is retired, I hope that he writes an additional version of this book.
Dr. DeHoff should fix some errors in the problem sets, and extend a few topics:
-More solution models, which are useful in metallurgy;
-More on fugacity, non-ideal gasses, virial equations, and the like
-More meat on statistical thermodynamics
DeHoff and Lupis make a great combination for materials thermodynamics. DeHoff for clarity and Lupis for thoroughness and rigor.
Edit: He has now done that by writing a second edition, which I have not yet had the opportunity to read through.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great introductory textbook, March 19, 2004
This is a wonderful, well-written text in thermodynamics for undergraduates and graduate students as well. The unique feature of this book is the logical approach utilized for handling equilibrium in systems of varying complexity, which I believe is superior to many of the conventional approaches. Also unique is the procedure developed by the author for deriving relations between state variables. The problem sets are quite useful and should be very helpful in understanding the subject. A solution manual I believe is also available to instructors. What this book lacks for an advanced graduate student in this field, is a comprehensive treatment of solution models and more practical applications using many of the excellent thermodynamic software and databases currently available. I would hope with enough encouragement by readers (and publisher) that these topics will be included in a future, perhaps thicker edition. Many of the non-traditional topics in thermodynamics such as defect chemistry, capillarity, electrochemistry or external fields are also introduced in the text and can be quite useful too.
I had the privilege of attending this course (and others) taught by the author and would strongly recommend getting hold of the taped lectures for this course if available.
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