BOOK REVIEWS two develops the theory of crystals from an atomic point of view. The last part of the book is devoted to Fermi's concepts of statistical mechanics. This book should be useful to upper division students, teachers, practicing physicists, and historians.
JANET B. VANDOREN College of Wooster Wooster, Ohw Kinetic Theory of Gases
W a l k Kawmann, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. Volume 1 of "Thermal Properties of Matter." W. A. Benjamin, Inc., New York, 1966. x 248 pp. Figs. and tables. 14.5 X 22 em. Clothbound, 58.50; paperbound, 53.95.
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"Kinetic Theory of Gases" is the first of a three volume series entitled "Thermal Properties of Matter." The other two members of the series presumably will treat the thermodynamics and elementssy statistical mechanics of dilute gases and condensed phases. These three volumes in turn are to form the core of an extended set of text-monographs on physical chemistry for use in undergraduate courses. Each of the monographs past the basic one will cover some specialized area of physical chemistry and will be written by an expert in that area. The purpose of
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this collection is to allow a teacher to tailor a textbook exactly to the material he chooses to present in his course. The author of the present volume is also editor of the generd series. Kauamann's "Kinetic Theory of Gases" is a long needed addition to the literature available for undergraduate instruction. His treatment of the subject is vastly superior both in quality and quantity to that found in most physical chemistry textbooks. The grander scope possible in a separate monograph has a number of beneficial implications that have been effectively employed. Not only has the development been carried farther, but the expressions developed are obtained in a much clearer and more nearly correct fashion. In part, the extra space has been used for rstber detailed discussion of especially important concepts. For example, there are particularly clear sections on the Maxwellian velocity distribution snd on the definitions of the m u d transport properties. The sections containing material beyond that usually covered are also quite good in generd. There is a brief but adequate treatment of the dynamics of binary collisions, a discussion of transport properties at very high and very low pressures, and an indication of the essentials of a more rigorous theory. The language is straightforward and clear throughout. The examples and exercises are well chosen to illustrate the material, although the exercises could be improved by including at least a partial set of answem.
Despite the superiority of Kauzmann's book as compared to most of its competitors, however, it is not wholly satisfactory. Unfortunately, no really significant d e parture from the traditional method of presenting the kinetic theory of gases to undergraduates has been made. A part of this tradition involves repetitive derivations of many important quantities, the level of sophistication increasing slightly each time. Three such cycles, for example, are used in the present book to obtain the collision frequency. Even then the separation of the center-of-mass motion is tucked away in an appendix where it is made to appear far more complicated than it really is by not using vectors. (Vector notation is eschewed throughout this volume--another ohjectionahle tradition.) For many students the result of this circumlocution is confusion and they lose sight of the real virtue of the kinetic tbeory-the simplicity of its assumptions. Also, there is a rather large amount of postponing enplanations to the succeeding volumes. This is an inevitable result of having separate volumes, and it mzkes one wonder whether there is really m y point in fragmenting the basic material, especially since the cost of the (hardbound) basic series alone is twice that of most singlevolume textbooks.
JAMES L. KINSEX. Massachusetts Imtitute of Tednolog?, (Continued a page A%0)
