Customer Reviews

Water Chemistry

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

 

 

This is the intermediate level water chemistry book and is a good text book to both learn and teach from. Benjamin's "Water Chemistry" is more comprehensive then Drever's "The Geochemistry of Natural Waters" but less comprehensive then Stumm and Morgan's "Aquatic Chemistry." The intended audience is upper level undergraduate or the first year graduate student, and assumes the reader already has a grasp of basic chemical concepts and thermodynamics. Chemistry majors will find the most of the material easy while students who are weak in chemistry will find it incredibly hard to follow. If you are more interested in geology and mineral geochemistry try Drever's "The Geochemistry of Natural Waters." If you are looking for a water chemistry book with more specific applications try Stumm and Morgan's "Aquatic Chemistry." Mark Benjamin's "Water Chemistry" book is a happy medium between the two and can be used as a reference.

the author of this book assume you have well-taught chemistry background therefore most of the solutions to example problems are simplified, the charts are confusing and hard to understand, many of the chemistry related constants provided in this book are incorrect... if you didn't score an A in chemistry II, it's not likely to be able to get through the book without the guidance of your professor.

The book is good for teaching particularly for undergraduate student who have basic knowledge of chemistry. I used it as the main reference book for one of the courses that I teach in the field of water chemistry. I am surprise to read that the book is complicated although I faced this problem with my students.

This book is nearly imposible to understand and/or follow. Water Chemistry is difficult enough and this book just complicates it more. The problems and solutions are written out and explained in paragraphs rather than just showing you how to solve. If you are required to purchase this book for class be sure to also purchase Water Chemistry by Snoeyind and Jenkins. Their text is much more comprehesive, and has several solutions shown to you step by step of how to solve common Water Chemistry problems.

It was hard to find this textbook. Many of the other sites I tried to purchase it from were sold out. Luckily, I found it here.

This textbook is garbage. If you are forced to use this book for an aquatic chemistry class then you had better already know aquatic chemistry, because this book will tell you almost nothing. It has almost no useful examples, and lacks a well thought out organization. I am sure the Author has decades of experience doing water chemistry but he makes the mistake of assuming that everyone who reads this book will have the same background knowledge that he has. This is apparent by the way he leaves out all the little details and relationships that allow one to actually solve problems. This whole rambling text could be replaced by 3 or 4 pages of concise methodology, which of course the textbook doesn't include. Better to go without a text, or better yet just call me and I can explain how to solve aquatic chemistry problems to you in a half hour better than this text does. The only thing this textbook might be useful for is if you run out of toilet paper. I would have given it zero stars but apparently the lowest score is 1 star; pity, because it really deserves a zero.