Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach (Hardcover)

by Donald A. McQuarrie (Author), John D. Simon (Author) "Toward the end of the nineteenth century, many scientists believed that all the fundamental discoveries of science had been made and little remained but to..." (more)
Key Phrases: hydrogen atomic wave functions, optimized trial function, electronic potential energy curves, Nobel Prize, Pauli Exclusion Principle, Third Law of Thermodynamics (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"It is a superb book, to be greatly appreciated and treasured by generations of students to come." -- Richard Zare, Stanford University

"an excellent modern physical chemistry course that should inspire us to rethink our curriculum." -- Journal of Chemical Education

"pedagogically pleasing, as it builds up physical chemistry from considerations of atoms to systems containing numerous molecules." -- Choice

Product Description
As the first modern physical chemistry textbook to cover quantum mechanics before thermodynamics and kinetics, this book provides a contemporary approach to the study of physical chemistry. By beginning with quantum chemistry, students will learn the fundamental principles upon which all modern physical chemistry is built. The text includes a special set of "MathChapters" to review and summarize the mathematical tools required to master the material Thermodynamics is simultaneously taught from a bulk and microscopic viewpoint that enables the student to understand how bulk properties of materials are related to the properties of individual constituent molecules. This new text includes a variety of modern research topics in physical chemistry as well as hundreds of worked problems and examples.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1360 pages
• Publisher: University Science Books; 1 edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935702997
• ISBN-13: 978-0935702996
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.2 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #65,349 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Textbook of Physical Chemistry, July 11, 2001

By	Steven Marks "Prog Harpo" (Petaluma, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had the good fortune of having Donald McQuarrie as a Professor for 5 Physical Chemistry courses while I was an undergrad at Indiana University (2 undergrad semsters and 3 graduate semesters). (He is now at UC Davis). His clarity and skills of being a classroom teacher was awesome. In the intervening years, I had forgotten a lot of what I had known in PChem - in spite of having gotten a PhD in the subject from Cal Berkeley. (Industry does that to one).

Now that my interests coincide with relearning the subject, I was turned off by the textbooks that I had. In searching for a text, I noticed McQuarrie had written one. I decided that it was definately worth checking out. Upon reading it - it became obvious that all those years of teaching the subject had paid off. The clarity in approaching the subject was set to print!

What is great about his text is: 1) Totally self contained. The math needed for a particular subject is put into interleafing chapters on a "just in time basis." I can see how that might be a turnoff for someone whose math skills are sharp, advanced and current. On the otherhand, for folks that need a refresher (like myself) or had limited exposure to the subject - It is right there, right now, no hunting around needed. 2) Comprehensive. YOU DO NOT NEED ANOTHER TEXT. If you have the misfortune of having a class where the Professor has chosen another text this would be THE supplemenatry text (though at [price] new there would be an 'ouch' factor). 3) BREAKS PARADIGMS. If you look at almost any other text on Physical Chemistry (Barrow or Atkins or .....), the Table of Contents is identical - the subject is taught in the order the historical discoveries where made. It is like in every generation the leading Physical Chemists took the old texts and APPENDED the latest and greatest to it. Guess What! That is not neccessary the Best way to LEARN (or in my case relearn) the subject. It is not neccesarily the method best suited for focusing on what is most applicable and utilized currently. McQuarrie's approach was a top/down rethinking of how to teach the subject. The focus as the subject indicates "A molecular Approach". While there is historical value in seeing how the pioneers took prinicples of thermodynamics -discovered when physicists scoffed at the very notion of molecules and then were able to show (a la Boltzman) that if one starts with molecules - one can derive thermodynamics from it. It is actually much more streamlined to learn it the opposite - focus on the notion of molecules first and foremost. This is the text of PChem for the 21st century.

As an aside, McQuarrie pays homage to the pioneers by having a Scientist highlighted per chapter.

All in all a great text from a great teacher!

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only P-Chem Textbook You'll Need, August 20, 2000

By	Matthew M. Yau "Voracious reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

One of the most emerging fear of P-Chem students is the rigid dificulty and obscureness of the mathematical background. Many textbooks have unfortunately overseen the importance of treating the mathematics and establishing link between the mathematics and the physical interpretation of chemical phenomenon. McQuarrie's text addresses and amends this problem in a brilliant. Difficult mathematical concepts are integrated along with the appropriate topics and are presented in a concise fashion. The first half of the text discusses topics in quantum chemistry while the rest deals with thermodynamics, statistical mechanics,and kinetics. All the equations are backed by clear explanation and mathematical derivation. When I took quantum chemistry (the first course of the P-Chem sequence), we used McQuarrie and it worked just fine in explaining all the topics covered in lecture.s (such as spectroscopy, perturbation theory, etc). Unfortunately professor from the second semester (thermodynamics) decided to abandon McQuarrie and used instead Atkins' Physical Chemistry, which is absolutely not worth the money and very confusing and difficult to follow. I kept the McQuarrie book and used that as study aids and reference, whereas I trashed Atkins as soon as the semester was over (well, I immediately sold it back). McQuarrie is the only P-Chem book you'll find useful and clear.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Watch out for used version!, April 11, 2005

By	Careful! "yo" (USA) - See all my reviews

If you are looking at the used version of this text DO NOT get the "2004 As New. LATEST 2004 EDITION SOFTCOVER STUDENT TEXTBOOK - BRAND NEW - AIRMAIL SHIPPING FOR INTERNATIONAL ORDERS -BUY FROM PROVEN SELLER !" book. This is a flimsy foreign printing of the book, very low quality. Stay far, far away from that edition of the text!