The 3rd edition of Morrison and Boyd's "Organic Chemistry" is perhaps one of the best undergraduate organic chemistry textbooks ever published. Although now somewhat out-of-date, lacking some new material and changes in organization, it still provides the student with a solid guide to the most essential topics -- the foundation for any further study. The book is divided into three parts. The 24 tightly woven chapters of Part I introduce the student to the fundamentals of organic chemistry. In Part II, Special Topics (8 chapters), and Part III, Biomolecules (5 chapters covering fats, carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids), the student reinforces his understanding of the fundamentals by applying them to more complicated systems. This text should be of value to any student learning organic chemistry for the first time or reviewing the properties of organic molecules in mor advanced biology od chemistry courses. Third edition, Fifteenth printing 1980
Who would have thought that chemistry can be combined with excellent writing, and endless creativity to produce a timeless masterpiece? This book rocks! Its easy to read, and good for mediocre chemistry students to graduates. Its as good as the experience of classroom teaching. The writing style is excellent, and some fiction writers could take lessons from the authors.
"On your desert island you would use your alcohols not only as raw materials, but frequently as the solvents in which reactions are carried out and from which products are recrystallized. Finally, hot and tiered after a long day in laboratory, you could refresh yourself with an (isopropyl) alcohol rub and perhaps relax over a cool (ethyl) alcoholic drink"
Hopefully it was the last time I had to read this. As much as I don't like organic chemistry this book is written in a way that makes it look somehow simpler and not so complex.
Was this an engaging read? No. But for a text book, it was amazingly well-written. It showed me that if written clearly and succinctly, a person could learn from a textbook without needing an instructor. By chance, the year I took Organic Chemistry, the usual professor was on leave and the class was lead by someone who read from the book. (We really shouldn't have paid tuition for that experience.)
By the end of the year, I had a solid understanding of Organic Chemistry and an appreciation for a well-done text. (And, over the course of the next many years, I came to realize that there aren't many good texts.). This is the only one of my undergraduate texts that still has a place on my shelves. (Oops, I also have my copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare.)
· The "Exclusion Principle" is explicitly referenced in §2.5, being called the "Cornerstone of Chemistry" with the atomic orbital ordering inequality given by the expression as follows, relating the necessary axial constraints for the physical instantiations of the space groups which the oppositive hadronic material particles (lepton, electron-type) with respect to charge (Coulomb: C) here given the conventional symbolic descriptor, with Wolfgang Pauli's adulation by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1946 by way of a Nobel Prize in Physics — His lecture given on December 13th of that year — "1s < 2s < 3s <3p < 4s < 3d < 4p < 5s < 4d < 5p < 6s < 4f < 5d < 6p < 7s < 5f < 6d < 7p".
· The table of periodicity attempts to convey this inherent structure, although not in a mathematical way given the lack of correspondence between the bijective requirement and the implication with regard to the regularity in mapping the density functions for the probabilities, thus as a visual reference such a graphical representation does not suffice for a diagram meeting the restrictions of a scientist presenting data in that such a graph does not genuinely convey the underlying structure of the rudimentary topic of this field (Often termed 'the central science' such as with the Biology -> Chemistry -> Physics transitivite relation intimated with theoreticians of the reductionist bent commonly indicated with parlance noticed in casual banter such as the 'fire-side chats', coffee-shop social shindigs or the office break ruminations). Rigor being the hallmark for mathematization with explicit, theorem proving according to discrete encodings manipulating exact symbology or 'determinate calculus' – Meneleav's contribution is simply inappropriate, although a useful sign-post on the way to what the future holds for aspiring thinkers and elite engineering firms employing their collaborative effort.
· In the February 1962 article from Physical Review Murray Gell-Mann outlines hypercharge in line with the conventional commutative relations (Note equation 3.1) and specifies the lattice structure for quantum numbers in conservation found with strong-force particle interaction. This isotopic spin algebra is incorporated in thinking stemming from Hofstadler the prior year with a unique "Baryon Octet" providing seminal conceptual apparatus for evincing the matrix mechanics according to the Special Unitary Group of Dimension Three invariance or SU(3)xSU(3) found in the mathematics involved herein (A.k.a. Group Theory or Algebra, in contrast to the other approaches of number and geometry). Hypercharge is defined as the sum of Strangeness and Baryon Number.
§2.6.3 of the 3rd edition of the Interntational Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry s Green Book (IUPAC Green Book, 3rd ed.) details the notation schema for communicating optical spectroscopic symbols of certain configurations.
My Two Cents: Although this is a basic concept encountered by all freshman students, the crucial facets of the rudiments of this thinking process and the skill ascertained when it is mastered are critical, albeit obvious from the sophomoric perspective.
While the Clayden book on the subject has gained great popularity over the last decade,this book to me still stands head & shoulders above the former. Why so? Written in a lucid,curiousity invoking manner the book keeps you interested in the subject as long as you care to stay awake.Back in 11th standard,organic chemistry was the only part of my chemistry syllabus that seemed to require rote learning.However,much to my surprise,things changed drastically when I got my hands on this book.Right from the first page the book delves into the very basics of bonding & how atoms come together.It then goes into many complex topics which are all explained so effortlessly! The book was a sheer delight.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in organic chemistry from either an academic pov or actual research pov.