Chemical Principles and Properties (Sienko, Michell J.; Plane, Robert A.)

non-metals, metals, transition metals, and the metalloids, as well as the noble gas. These chapters also describe numerous plant operations and chemic...
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book reviews non-metals, metals, transition metals, and the metalloids, as well as the noble gas. These chapters also describe numerous plant operations and chemical process industries that are essential to our economy and employ 80-95% of all chemists. Many chemistry teachers have hemoaned the "swing" that left these out and submitted numerous abstractions that are certainly essential to the practicing chemist, but only confuse and confound thme non-mathematically oriented. Only three items this reviewer could find fault with: (1) The Dimensional Analysis idea, the metric, S.I., or I.S.U. systems are in the appendices which, like their own appendix, is a n afterthought or obsolete to most average and under students who are unaware of the utility of such pages. In a similar view in my opinion is the "Glossary" informative but definitely not all inclusive; (2) Very little, maybe it has been overdone, is found in this text on ecology and pollution; (3) "Textbook Errors," [J. CHEM. EDUC., 38, 480 (196111 by .I. Art Campbell points out that in the beautiful illustration many of us have used (as described on p. 194 in the text), the paddle wheel turns not due to the stream of electrons in a cathode ray tube but tu the light; so it really acts like a radiometer. As for the accompanying lab manual, the objectives as stated for this publication are 1) An attempt by experiment to show the early historical development as it leads to a real understanding of the field of chemistry. 21 Experiments to confirm theories, with hope for further explorative and inventive ideas. 3 ) To observe chemically related phenomena. 4) Same emphasis on desirable techniques. 5) Exercises and problems. Clever, humorous and definitely educational cartoons are scattered through the experiments; they are the most unique feature of the manual. Descriptive, well-illustrated procedures are quite adequate and direction should not be difficult tu follow. Experiment 12, Entropy, is not a common one for this level, although it is a clear, well-defined, useful idea. Few manuals include. as this one does in Experiment 14, Spectroscopy; that should be intriguing toall. The teacher's guide is a standard at^ tempt to correlate the lab experiments, the text, and the teacher. It provides a n swers to all questions and problems both in the text and lab manual-a real assist for the beginner or even the old pro. Finally, this is a well written, readable, interesting book, which is highly recammended by this reviewer. Try it: you misht like it too. William G. Kessel Indiana State University Terra Haute, indiana 47809

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Journal ot Chemical Education

Chemical Principles and Properties

MirheN J. Sienho, Cornell University and Kobert A. Plane, Cornell University. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1974. xi + 788 pp. Figs. and tables. 19.5 X 24cm. $13.95. "Outstanding." This adjective applies to the overall quality of this second edition of "Chemical Principles and Properties," a textbook written for first-year college chemistry students. The authors, who have written excellent general chemistry textbooks in the past, have produced a thoroughly revised and well-mitten book. They recognize the fact that our first-year chemistry students are not as sophistieated in training as once anticipated and thus have more gradually developed the more theoretical topics such as atomic structure, chemical banding, kinetics, and thermodynamics. Descriptive chemistry has been reemphasized and new topics added: wave functions, symmetry, molecular vibrations, and chain reactions. The text is divided into three parts: Part I, "Principles of Chemistry," Part 11, "Properties of the Elements and Their Compounds," and Part 111, "Man and His Chemical Environment." Same calculus is introduced but only where needed. There are numerous worked out examples throughout the text and over 800 new excercises are a t the end of the chapters. The problems are arranged in order of increasing difficulty and answers are given for about half of the problems. An instructor's manual is available that includes all of the answers as well as worked-out solutions. Part I1 includes a chapter on hydrogen, oxygen, and water and four chapters on the transition metals. Separate chapters are also included covering Group 111, IV, V, VI, and VII elements. Organic chemistry is covered in some depth, not in breadth, but mainly as an aspect of carbon chemistry. Equilibrium computations and thermodynamic applications are included frequently in Part 11, especially in the problem sets. Of interest to most chemistry instructors, the authors have emphasized the applications of qualitative analysis by including considerable information for detection of the common elements. Part 111 of the text, an entirely new seetion, deals with man and his chemical em vironment. Chapter 28, entitled "Limits to Growth," examines the material and energy demands an the environment, population control, and the prediction of limits to growth. Chapter 27 reviews the effects of drugs and radiation on mankind-both the good and bad effects. Finally, Chapter 26 deals with the problems generated by pollutants and additives in relation to air, water, and food. The authors have largely adopted the system of SI units, as recommended by the International Committee on Weights and Measures. The unit of Torr is eliminated, the joule is used, and atmosphere is retained. The sign of the reduction patential has been used for electrode potentials. An excellent feature of the book is the placement of useful conversion units, definitions of units, and physical quantities on the inside cover of the hook for the easy

use of the student. This text is well-organized and clearly written and will he widely used; it is useful for all students requiring a goad grounding in the elements of chemistry. Besides chemistry majors, this text will serve for medical students, engineers, molecular biologists, and agronomists.

P.Calvin Maybury University 01 South Florida Tampa. Florida 33620

IntroductoryChemislry: A Survey of General, Organic and Biological Chemistry

Karl F. Kumli, California State University, Chico. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1914. xviii + 667 pp. Figs. and tables. 18.5 x 24 cm. 512.95. This textbook is divided about equally into the three areas mentioned in the title. The first 11 chapters are in the area of general chemistry, the next 11 in organic and the last 10 are in biochemistry. The chapters conclude with a brief summary of salient points and a moderate number of problems. The book concludes with two appendices, a goad intmduetary mathematical review, and a discussion of inorganic nomenclature. The weakest of the three sections of the hook is the first part dealing with general chemistry. Same of the writing here lacks clarity and sharpness of definition; i.e., molecules are defined as "the small particles of compounds," the phrase "in eleetron volts which is a very small unit of energy" is used, and an indicator is defined as "a substance that will change color a t a certain pH due to its own acidity or basieity." The content of these 11 chapters matches that of most general chemistry texts with the one exception of thermodynamics. The concept of energy is defined an page 1, but the concepts of enthalpy, entropy, and free energy are never discussed. Thus when the ward energy is used in the seberal dozen reaction coordinate diagrams, the student has no indication as to what this energy means. The level of quantitative rigor is rather low. The most difficult computation is the use of the equation PV = n R T The phenomenon of osmosis is discussed but the van't Hoff equation is not given. This level of presentation may be satisfactory for the intended audience of students of nutrition, agriculture, and the paramedical disciplines. The most serious flaw in the book is the poor quality of the figum and of the mathematical and chemistry display material. Equations such as 2H 2em Hze, p. 153, Zn -- Zn' 2ee, p. 163, and [H.Of][OH-] = 1 X p. 194, will leave the student either depressed or canfused. Either errors, omissions, or lack of clarity plague a number of figures such as 2-5, 2-6, 2-11, 3-6, and 6-19, The display material an pages 135 and 474 is an example of poorly done typography. It appears that the directions given to the compositor (Continued on page A441

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