Atkins' Physical Chemistry
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Atkins' Physical Chemistry Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
The most poorly edited textbook I have ever read.
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For all the money you're paying for this book, you'd think that de Paula and Atkins could hire someone to actually READ the thing before it was published. There's at least one typo on nearly every page (and more on others). Some of these errors are innocuous, but others completely obfuscate what the authors are trying to say. To make things more of a mess, the examples and mathematical derivations often gloss over several key points that make it difficult for students to follow. And don't even get me started on the problems, which make use of magical values that are nowhere to be found in the book. The solutions are even worse - it's as if the authors mixed up the numbers of the problems in the 7th edition without bothering to update the corresponding solutions.
The representation of units is questionable at best. Who uses dm^3 instead of L as their de facto unit of volume? The authors take their cockamamie unit scheme one step further by representing all numerical values as unitless entities. For example, instead of R = 8.31 (J / mol * K), they'll divide both sides by the units and depict it as R / (J / mol * K) = 298. This baffling treatment of units is unnecessary, inconsistent, and, worst of all, distracting from the material at hand.
In a word, terrible. Since this is my first physical chemistry course I have no frame of reference for judging the content (which is decent, as far as I can tell), but the presentation is awful. If you MUST get this book for a class, look for the International edition - the only difference is that the images in the International edition aren't in color. Take the money you save and purchase a separate book that actually presents the material clearly. |
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