Using the second part of the program, various properties were graphed onscreen against the atomic numbers of elements of several periods of a group, reinforcing the trends noted in part one. Using the third portion of the program, covalent radius was related to first ionic radius, with the elements being studied shown in their position on an otherwise blank periodic table. This provided a timely change in the visual presentation. Finally, the students were directed on their report sheet to graph properties versus atomic number using the data they had gathered and to draw conclusions about the trends they had observed. They were asked to relate all of the property trends to effective nuclear charge and metallic and nonmetallic nature, eonceptsdiscussed before class hut not presented or mentioned in the program itself. All this turned out to he a very successful wedding of "high tech" and experimental learning, and in the process I was able to present far more actual data in some sort of reasonable order while utilizing the same classtime as in past lectures. Student Reaction The students were asked to complete their report sheet with an evaluation of the program in comparison to a "conventional" ledare on the topic. In the two sections of about 20 students each, only three students were unenthusiatic, disliking all the data gathering. The vast majority felt that hy the time they had seen the data, graphed it, and rediscovered the trends for themselves they had learned a lot more than they would have learned from a usual lecture, and they appreciated the novelty of the non-routine approach, even with the extra work involved. Summary Tnis program provides for the instructor a u,ealth 01' data from which to huild an excellent classroom presentation, complete with three modes of display. The Kodak Datashow or other eomputer-overhead interfacing devices bring computer programs to the classroom even if a computer per student is not available, and I am discovering that this is a quantum leap forward in the teaching of chemistry. The use of the program by individual students would work well in a computer lab situation if available. Sharon L. Gardlund Mscomb Community College 14500 Twelve Mile Road Warren. MI 48090
Chemlstry: A Flrst Course G. Rayner-Canham and A. Last. AddisonWelsey: Don Mills, Ontario, 1988. xiii 594 pp. Figs. and tables. 20.8 X 24.2 cm. $24.95 Can.
+
As stated in the Preface. this textbook is aimedat the introductory high school ehemistry student. Assuch, it providesa rlpar but rigorous description of chemistry. Indeed, its rigor is apparent, with very little watering down of the subject. Indicative of this is the attitude taken with example prohlems throughout the text: dimensional analysis is
pushed almost exclusively as a problem solving method, and the answers are demonstrated in detail and a t length. At the end of each chapter is a long list of questions and nrohlems to test the readers' comnrehension. Some instructors may think the authurs'attitude roo rigorous ior beginning rtudents; others (myself included) will welcome this perspective. I t was easily noticed thatthe authors tried to point out meaningful connections hetween textbook chemistry and the world around us. Acid rain and nuclear accidents are orominentlv discussed. and illustrations point out how various chemrcals are used in everyday living. Scattered through the chapters are "Fearure.," short essays expounding on particular people or subjects related to the textual material. These features are sure to invoke interest. The text and prohlems make exclusive use of metric units, eschewing common units as atmosoheres and Molaritv (using kilopascals and'mo1es.l- in stead)..^" lac;; the hook does not even mentivn molalitr. or normality as concentration units; dimensional analysis, again, is used to solve prohlems that usually use these units. The book bas refreshing sides to it. I n the discussion of the scientific method, the authors point out that not all great discoveries and advances arise from strict adherence to the scwnufic method, they rite thediscover. be- of Teflon and nohle gas compwnda as examples. Such admissions are rare in firstyear textbooks and promote the idea of seientists as human beings. Color plates show many elements in their elemental forms, as well as productions of aluminum from hauxite and oetroleum oroducts from oil sands: the illustrations in general are aptly chosen. The fact that the text isobviously Canadtan may be considered a drawback by potential non-canadian instructors. Surely the principles are the same regardless of nationality, but some of the references may not evoke the same level of comprehension in non-Canadian students. There is even a welcome chapter on industrial chemistry near the end of the book-titled "Canadian Industrial Chemistry"! Why "Canadian"? Why not just "Industrial Chemistry"? I wish the authors had included certain topics that are surely worth studying even by high school students: solution properties (like freezing noint de~ressionsand boiling noint eleva&s). hvdioeen hondine. some ;hermodynamicsithete~hasnone&h the exception of the definitions of enthalps. exothermic, and endothermicl, and should even have some mention of plastics and polymers and their almost universal uses. Still, this hook would he an excellent aid for learning the basic fundamentals of chemistry. Davld W. Ball Rice Univsrsily Houston. TX 77001
Physlcal Organlc Chemlstry NeilS. isaacs. Wiley: New York. NY. 1987. xviii 828 pp. Figs. and tables. 24.4 X 15.4 cm. 549.95.
+
At the beginning of his foreword to this hook, Neil Isaacs defines physical organic Volume 65
chemistry as "the study of the underlying principles and rationale of organic reactions.. ." It is thus in the line of earlier works of the same title by Hammett, Hine, Kosower and others, and in a certain contrast to the Advanced Organic Chemistry texts of Wheland. Fuson. Fieser and Fieser and March. The latter emphasize advanced material: the former, an advanced way of lookmg at the marerial runsidered. Thm edwnced way is thnrugh molecular orhrral theory, and lvaacs does a fine job of introducing it and applying it to specific cases. As a compendium, his work is admirable; it covers the literature up to 1986. The first nine chaoters deal with the"underlvine prmciplea,"and the~jtherseven with specif~c reaction types. One surprising feature is the grouping together of all substitution reactions at carbon in chapter 10: nucleophilic and electrophilic at saturated, aromatic, and carhonyl centers. The work falters, it seems to me, as a textbook. This is a British book marketed in the United States, apparently without change, by Wiley. British textbooks have always been much too terse for most American tastes. They tend to lay out the essentials without exposition or explanation, placing a heavy burden on the hackground of the student or the presentation of the professor. This work is certainly in that tradition. As a textbook, though it may cover more material, it cannot compare with Lowry and Richardson's Mechanism ond Theory in Organic Chemistry. The British source of this book affords other problems. I t t w k m e a while to realize that "rlpm" did not mean radius per picometer, but rather radius in picameters. The book should have been edited for American readers. Besides, the editing that was done seems to have heen for the convenience of the typesetters, not for the readers; thus, the reference an p 416 to the tahle on p 392, and the displacement of the tahle on p 697. This is not to deny that this is a most valuable source hook that should be in every college library and on the shelves of most teachers of organic chemistry. Issacs has done a most thorough job of summarizing the literature of this important field. Charles J. Thoman Stephen F. Austin State Unlverslty NaCOgdOCheS, n: 75962 ~
~
- ..
Physlcal Chemletry, Thlrd Edition Ira N. Levine. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, 1988. xvii 920 pp. Figs. 21 X 24.2 cm.
+
According to the author, "the textbook is written for the standard undergraduate course in physical chemistry." Since there are several such so-called "standard undergraduate courses," this reviewer will comment on the individual chapters as they would he used in the average standard undergraduate physical chemistry course. On comparison with the ever popular textbook hy P. W. Atkins, this textbook fares very well. Both Atkins and Levine have tried to (Continued on pnge A336) Number 12
December 1968
A335
