Product Description

Written for general chemistry courses, this text should help students to develop chemical insight by showing the connections between chemical principles and their applications, both in the laboratory and the world around us. the author begin with a detailed picture of the atom before moving on to the macroscopic topics of thermodynamics and kinetics. They continually demonstrate how to solve problems and encourage students to question, reason and think visually about the concepts they learn.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #596870 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1024 pages

About the Author
PETER ATKINS, Oxford University. - LORETTA JONES, University of Northern Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Good First year text
This is an excellent book for first year chemistry students.

The textbook start by giving a whirlwind tour of A level chemistry and nomenclature.

The book begins in earnest by explaining the principles of quantum mechanics in some detail. The style is clear and interesting to read intersting.

The remainder of the textbook is spent dealing with mainly physical chemistry, periodicity and to some extent inorganic chemistry.

My only criticism is that is does not cover organic or functional group chemistry in any detail. However Prof. Atkins is a physical chemist so he may be forgiven for this. Also spectroscopy gets hardly a mention and no attempt is made to explain term symbols.

All in all an excellent textbook especially if you have missed some of your physical chemistry leactures. However for a more comprehensive text try Elements of Physical Chemistry by the same author, or alternatively Physical Chemistry also by the same author. The latter is a textbook that will carry through an entire degree but the treatment of more fundamental principles is perhaps too breif.

Great book for a foundation Chemistry course
I would highly recommend this book to any one who is starting or doing a chemistry foundation course. The book is written with an expectation that prior knowledge of chemistry is known, however all theories are written simply and examples are given to help in-force the concepts. This would be a good start for anyone at university who is taking a chemistry module as is covers a wide spectrum of concepts.