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Principles of Modern Chemistry
PRINCIPLES OF MODERN CHEMISTRY has dominated the honors and high mainstream general chemistry courses and is considered the standard for the course. The fifth edition is a substantial revision that maintains the rigor of previous editions but reflects the exciting modern developments taking place in chemistry today. Authors David W. Oxtoby and H. P. Gillis provide a unique approach to learning chemical principles that emphasizes the total scientific process-from observation to application-placing general chemistry into a complete perspective for serious-minded science and engineering students. Chemical principles are illustrated by the use of modern materials, comparable to equipment found in the scientific industry. Students are therefore exposed to chemistry and its applications beyond the classroom. This text is perfect for those instructors who are looking for a more advanced general chemistry textbook.
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First published January 1, 1986
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January 13, 2021i hate it
April 2, 2014
This review is for Principles of Modern Chemistry, 6th ed. by Oxtoby, Campion & Gillis. (A webpage for this edition does not exist - although, incidentally, one for the solution manual does.)
This book presents itself as a general chemistry text - which it is, for the most part - but not one I would recommend to someone who is learning chemistry for the first time. In fact, I would only recommend this text to someone who is specifically interested in physical chemistry and developing the foundation to learn more.
The first third of the book, for instance, is a moderately difficult, yet somewhat superficial, introduction to quantum mechanics. The chapters progress in a microscopic-to-macroscopic format, an understandable strategy, but one that runs the risk of intimidating readers with highly inelegant math and counterintuitive concepts. (The latter chapters are much easier.)
I also felt this book was a tad verbose. The page dimensions are not small, the font is not large, and it still takes 900 pages to explain chemistry - which may seem like a standard length to some, but, I assure you, it could have been more concise. (Compare to Griffith's vastly more thorough introduction to QM in 400 pages.)
This book presents itself as a general chemistry text - which it is, for the most part - but not one I would recommend to someone who is learning chemistry for the first time. In fact, I would only recommend this text to someone who is specifically interested in physical chemistry and developing the foundation to learn more.
The first third of the book, for instance, is a moderately difficult, yet somewhat superficial, introduction to quantum mechanics. The chapters progress in a microscopic-to-macroscopic format, an understandable strategy, but one that runs the risk of intimidating readers with highly inelegant math and counterintuitive concepts. (The latter chapters are much easier.)
I also felt this book was a tad verbose. The page dimensions are not small, the font is not large, and it still takes 900 pages to explain chemistry - which may seem like a standard length to some, but, I assure you, it could have been more concise. (Compare to Griffith's vastly more thorough introduction to QM in 400 pages.)
June 24, 2023
This reviewer’s last exposure to chemistry during his formal education was not since an advanced placement class in high school. It is a pleasure, therefore, to return to a text intended for honors undergraduates in order to begin to understand the field from ground up. Why? For it supplies historical perspective: after all, there is more to physics than ballistics and celestial mechanics. For the founders of modern empirical science, problems such as these are to be regarded as ideal paradigm cases by which to work out the principles so that one can then go on to apply them to the intriguing questions having to do with the inner structure of matter; see, for instance, Newton’s Opticks. Indeed, during the nineteenth century thermodynamics stood at the forefront of developments in physics, without which the elaboration of quantum mechanics would be inconceivable.
Modern chemistry has more than satisfactorily answered these perennial questions – maybe photosynthesis and the phenomena of life represent the last frontier of mystery? In any case, David W. Oxtoby and H.P. Gillis’ Principles of Modern Chemistry (now in its eighth edition) may be taken as a trustworthy guide that synthesizes all that chemists have learned over the past two centuries into a readily digestible format.
What is the level of this text? It can be hard to judge in retrospect, after graduate school in physics everything appears easy! Roughly appropriate for the sophomore year in college: one should enroll in first courses in quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics concurrently. The mathematics, however, remains at the freshman level, at most. But what counts are the ideas, which are not necessarily trivial for the beginning student to grasp.
Where Oxtoby excels is precisely in the explication of intricate concepts. There are many the beginning student of chemistry may be encountering for the first time, or at least for the first time at this level of sophistication: the operational meaning of an acid versus a base and how aqueous solutions behave under acid-base equilibria, the Aufbauprinzip for building up the electron shells of the elements and the rules for how it works, electronegativity, the various types of chemical bonds and how these come into existence, oxidative versus reducing reactions etc.
This reviewer particularly appreciates chapters five through eight on atomic and molecular structure as described by quantum mechanics and on chemical bonding in organic molecules and in transition metal compounds and coordination complexes – definitely more advanced than anything one will get in a high-school advanced placement class! The nature of the chemical bond in the hydrogen ion is described exhaustively in terms of its wavefunctions. Then the same for de-localized bonds in molecular orbital theory via the linear combination of atomic orbitals approximation. Again, Oxtoby shows both analytical formulae for and color figures of the molecular orbitals, along with correlation diagrams, for instance, for heteronuclear diatomic molecules and small polyatomic molecules such as carbon dioxide. The structure of transition metal compounds and coordination complexes is far from an elementary topic, as one has now to take what one has learned about molecular orbitals in the previous chapters and apply it to see how the molecular orbitals of the two constituents (a metal atom on the one hand, and an oxygen atom or unsaturated ligand on the other) come together to form the compound. But with the help of numerous level diagrams, Oxtoby makes such subjects as valence bond theory and ligand field theory clearly understood. A similar statement could be made about his treatment of acid-base equilibria, solubility and precipitation equilibria, electrochemistry and the interaction of molecules with light in later chapters. The closing sections on structure and bonds in solids, inorganic solid materials and polymeric materials and soft condensed matter are not nearly so mathematically challenging, perhaps, but nonetheless instructive and rewarding for anyone who has ever wondered how everyday objects are made up (fabrics, glasses, ceramics and so forth).
Recommended warmly for anyone who wants to know chemistry beyond the superficial level. After reading this book, one should be in a position to answer his child’s incessant queries as to what common things are and why they behave the way they do – possibly, to recall a few treasured memories, with even more insight than did this reviewer’s father, back in the day! For an informed explanation by someone who really understands the material from the ground up and can respond to questions is always much to be preferred to the slick canned presentations to which children will be exposed in grade school.
Modern chemistry has more than satisfactorily answered these perennial questions – maybe photosynthesis and the phenomena of life represent the last frontier of mystery? In any case, David W. Oxtoby and H.P. Gillis’ Principles of Modern Chemistry (now in its eighth edition) may be taken as a trustworthy guide that synthesizes all that chemists have learned over the past two centuries into a readily digestible format.
What is the level of this text? It can be hard to judge in retrospect, after graduate school in physics everything appears easy! Roughly appropriate for the sophomore year in college: one should enroll in first courses in quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics concurrently. The mathematics, however, remains at the freshman level, at most. But what counts are the ideas, which are not necessarily trivial for the beginning student to grasp.
Where Oxtoby excels is precisely in the explication of intricate concepts. There are many the beginning student of chemistry may be encountering for the first time, or at least for the first time at this level of sophistication: the operational meaning of an acid versus a base and how aqueous solutions behave under acid-base equilibria, the Aufbauprinzip for building up the electron shells of the elements and the rules for how it works, electronegativity, the various types of chemical bonds and how these come into existence, oxidative versus reducing reactions etc.
This reviewer particularly appreciates chapters five through eight on atomic and molecular structure as described by quantum mechanics and on chemical bonding in organic molecules and in transition metal compounds and coordination complexes – definitely more advanced than anything one will get in a high-school advanced placement class! The nature of the chemical bond in the hydrogen ion is described exhaustively in terms of its wavefunctions. Then the same for de-localized bonds in molecular orbital theory via the linear combination of atomic orbitals approximation. Again, Oxtoby shows both analytical formulae for and color figures of the molecular orbitals, along with correlation diagrams, for instance, for heteronuclear diatomic molecules and small polyatomic molecules such as carbon dioxide. The structure of transition metal compounds and coordination complexes is far from an elementary topic, as one has now to take what one has learned about molecular orbitals in the previous chapters and apply it to see how the molecular orbitals of the two constituents (a metal atom on the one hand, and an oxygen atom or unsaturated ligand on the other) come together to form the compound. But with the help of numerous level diagrams, Oxtoby makes such subjects as valence bond theory and ligand field theory clearly understood. A similar statement could be made about his treatment of acid-base equilibria, solubility and precipitation equilibria, electrochemistry and the interaction of molecules with light in later chapters. The closing sections on structure and bonds in solids, inorganic solid materials and polymeric materials and soft condensed matter are not nearly so mathematically challenging, perhaps, but nonetheless instructive and rewarding for anyone who has ever wondered how everyday objects are made up (fabrics, glasses, ceramics and so forth).
Recommended warmly for anyone who wants to know chemistry beyond the superficial level. After reading this book, one should be in a position to answer his child’s incessant queries as to what common things are and why they behave the way they do – possibly, to recall a few treasured memories, with even more insight than did this reviewer’s father, back in the day! For an informed explanation by someone who really understands the material from the ground up and can respond to questions is always much to be preferred to the slick canned presentations to which children will be exposed in grade school.
February 1, 2009
This book was terrible, I never felt like they gave enough information. When they did it was still so conceptual I wasn't sure how to do the homework, I highly suggest the solutions manual. My teacher was even worse... had to give the book three for helping me through it all.
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August 12, 2009Please email me snutzh@gmail.com for the manual solutions, I can also email you with a sample of the solution if needed.
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