reviews General Chemistry, 2nd ed.
Answer given in the back: 14 x 10' m
F! W. Atkinsand J. A. Beran. W. H. Freeman: New York, NY, 1992. xviii + 1025 pp. Figs. and tables. 21 x 26.2 cm. $59.95.
General Chemistry has a clean, concise,andenjoyablestyle. The Case sidebars, new to this edition, touch an intriguing topics (Case in point: "Swimming Pools and Chemistty" and '"iving aboard the Space Shuttle"). Environmental issues are covered with a refreshingly gentle emphasis. Additional special-interest materials (such as scanning tunneling microscopy) are included in a box format, and historical tidbits are interwoven with the text. Figures are plentiful and effective, and the examples are numerous and appromiate. As far ar teachability is concerned, there are some strong points, such as an expanded semon un unit converriun and a math appendix rerrittrn to mludc calculators. The dlscussiun of some nonintuitive topics, such as colligative properties, is very good. However, the discussion of same other topics, such as oxidation numbers (which precedes electrochemistry by 13 chapters), could be improved. The authors elect to fallow the popular practice of extending VSEPR theory to organic molecules, asking students to treat triple bonds as a single electron pair, which I consider dangerously confusing. And although the authors lament that "many students have had little or no exposure to the scientific method", the" do not exoose them in this text. either. Thev discuss sirnificon; figure* bit fbster a casual attit"de toward h e m by v r a l k n g thrlr o w n rules, as in Exnmplr 5.11. I did not proofread the entire text but caught a few trivial typos, nonetheless. For instance, in Table 14.3 the hydroxide ion appears under the heading "acid". and the half-life for tritium is -eiven once as 12.5 days ( b i t later it is given correctly). There are also a few statements of ouestionahle accuracv , such as. "All metals can he ddormpd hy hlmmering . . . ",which dcfinitely discounts the difliculty encountered in hammering mer. cury I would hnvr rrarrnnged Jame mntrrinl ( r g , I would have introduced spectroscopyafter the hydrogen atom), but instructors can assign readings in any order they choose, so this is not an critical flaw. I t is more significant that I randomly selected two problems at the end of each chapter and found 27% contained errors. For example, ~
~
A278
Journal
of
Chemical Education
". . .
B
B
Answer in the back: (a) is A2B,CD and (b) is AzBC2D;not an enantiometric pair. Problem 23.61 is misleading: "Writethe structural formula of. tene."
. . trans-1,2-diphenyl-2-bu-
These are not necessarily fatal flaws. A conscientious instructor would work through problems before assigning them anyway. But sometimes students do try problems an their awn, and students' confidence in themselves and the textbook can be a fragile thing. I f 1 were teaching from a different text, I would be tempted to borrow some explanations and visuals from this book. If I were teaching from this text, I would make good use ofthe Annotated Instructor's Version with its generous J. Chem. Educ. references, notes, and suggestions for demonstrations. I am afraid, however, I would have to ask the students to buy an additional, supplemental, problem book. Cathv Cobb
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Problem 15.69 is wrong: "Consider the two equilibria CaFz(s) r CaZ+(aq)+ 2Maq)K, = 4.0 x 10." F-(aq) + HzO(l)tt HF(oq) +OH-faq) KJHF) = 3.5 x lo-' determine the [combined] equilibrium constant." Answer given in the back:K = 1.4 x Problem 1.47 has a rounding error: "The speed of light is 2.998 x lo8 mls. How far can light travel in 5.0 s?"
.. .
Problem 21.59 contains an art error: do [the following1 form an enantiometric pair?"
Westinghouse Savannah ~ L eCo. r Aiken, SC 29808
Chemistry, Concepts and Models Wiam R. Robinson, Jerome D. Odom, and Henry 17Holtzdaw, Jr. D. C. Heath: Lexington, MA, 1992. xxi + 870 pp. Figs. and tables. 20.4 x 25.3 cm.
This textbook for the two-semester general chemistry course is a shorter version (750 pp of text) of the authors'Chemistry, 9th ed. (1005 pp of text). The publisher intends for this hook to meet the perceived demand for shorter texts. While the demand is justified, in the reviewer's opinion, just removing material from a long textbook, and that is mostly what has been done here, is not the best way to proceed. The condensation was achieved mostly by truncating discussions of molecular orbital theory, solubility products, and organic chemistry and eliminating a chapter on biochemistry.
