Chemistry Michel J. Sienko, Cornell University and Robert A. Plane, Clarkson College. MeGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1976. ix 624p. Figs. and tables. 24 X 19.5 cm.
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The 5th Edition of "Chemistry" remains directed, by the authors, to the student tsking a course for his general and cultural hackground. The text is profitably, but hardly "extensively," revised from the previous edition. The page size shows a 20% increase in width and this is accomoanied bv a new and graphs have been redone and at the same time made significantly smaller. The space thus created has been well used to present the tables within the text much more readably than they were in the previous edition. In total.. the eraohies of the text have undereone ,, " a dramatic improvement. Revisions of the textual material can he categorized. First, the paragraphs introducing each chapter have, in most eases, been changed and expanded to include discussion of the relevance of the chanter's tooie. Second., the first ;our chaoters have been reorganized somewhat, providing an improved presentation of atomic and molecular structure. Third, anumber of subjects have had their more-involved aspects, present in the 4th Edition, removed, slightly reducing the rigor of the oresentation. As examoles of simolifying omissions, the kinetic molecular derivation of the equation of state has been dropped, as have: antibonding orbitals, cooling by gas expansion, dislocation defects in crystals, the polywater controversy, Mgt disproportionation, the descriptive chemistry
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of cobalt and nickel, the comparison of the ehemistryof calcium end zinc, and the aldol condensation. Discussion of some topics has remained, but in an attenuated form. In this classification one finds discussion of polyprotic acids, equilibrium changes (particularly hydrolysis), discussion of simplifying assumptions in the solution of quadratic eauations. and lieand-field theorv. F ~ n m hromp . nmvrnrmnz end units haw brcn chnnnrd in rlw Text, in pnrr~cular:hrat capacity is now used in place of specific heat, joules in place of calories,nanometers in place of angstroms, atmospheres in place of torr, reduction potentials in place of oxidation ootentials. and H + in olaee of HlO+. ' A new rhnptrr on nrganir ~ r a c r i o n s hna Ihew ~ u r l u d ~hut d the exi$ring chaprem on Organic CIwmi%tryand Hwhemisrry haw not been substantively changed. Sample problems within the body of the text remain unchanged from the previous edition hut the problems for the student a t the end of the chapter have been totally revised. Errors which might seem trivial to others, Ihul pnrticlllorly wnecrn rhc rewewer. arc ~ h r win whizh thr (H'] oi-purr" wawr is w P n n- 10.- with nu indirarwn that rhm is a temperature-dependent quantity. This error is exacerbated in the Chemical Equilibrium chapter where, in contrast to the previous edition, under the section titled "What is the effect of raising the temperature?" the change in a K, is unmentioned! Also, the authors should help the student to recognize that chemical equilibrium is only one type of equilibrium and that chemical reaction occurs not when a svstem a t eouilihrium is dixturhpd hut only uhen n sy.~tem equtlibrium is dtaturlrrd. at i.irtwrt~.nl 4 numher ui h r m llut val~ahlea d d ~ w n s to the textual material deserve mention. An excellent practical example with which the student can identify now concludes the
chapter on Changes of State and Thermodynamics. The environmental significance of lead oallution has been added. A section on rad~
