experiments are included on column and
on the part of research-minded students. Nevertheless, questions raised in alert minds by many of these interesting experiments will lead to additional study. The general impression of the manual is that of careful, competent writing baaed upon wide experience in the field. WILLIAMC. OELKE Grinnell College Clinnell. Iowa
Dynamic Physical Chemistry: A Textbook of Thermodynamics, Equilibria, a n d Kinetics
J . Rose, Birkenhead Technical College, England. John Wiley 8- Sons, Inc., 1218 pp. New York, 1961. xii Figs. and tables. 14.5 X 22 cm. $11.50.
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The avowed purpose of this volume is to he a text and reference for persons with an elementary knowledge of the subject and some mathematical understanding. It is to be intermediate between single volume treatises and hooks "written by experts for experts." Although the production by one man of a hook of this length on such a range of topics is no small feat (and one which the author has performed moderately well), this reviewer cannot escape the conclusion that the possession of two or three separate volumes selected from ones already in print by different authors would better meet the need for an advanced text or referenee than this book. The first two laws of thermodynamics are presented in a standard manner using Cilrnot cycles. The approach through CarathQodory's principle is given in a bit less than three pages near the end of this section, hut it seems that considerably more thought and space could and should be devoted to this elegant approach if i t is to he discussed a t all, The CarathBodory treatment is cited by the author as a special feature of the hook. The like amount of time devoted to irreversible thermodynamics appears to be too short to be of significant help to a person not already familiar with the material. The sections an s t a t i s t i d thermadynamics are also 8. hit frustrating in terms of an incomplete or diffusediscussion of fundamental points. The Bolt~mann equation derivation is started (equation 8.2) midstream, and after deriving the mean kinetic energy of an ideal gas molecule to be 3/28, where 0 is the usual undetermined multiplier, thia energy was asserted to be 3/2 kT. This assertion is not obvious, and unless an explicit connection is made with experiment the argument would appear to be a bit circular. The term "phase space" is used on p. 259 without previous or future explanations. These and other such objections might seem unimportant in considering a condensed summary work if the author had not spent one hundred and forty pages in discussing many aspects and cases of phase rule studies. Value
judgments made by the reviewer favor a reapportionment of effort. A book such as the one by Aston and Fritz, "Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics" (Wiley, 19591, would be a preferred substitute to the first fourteen ohapters of this hook. It would he presumed that the methods of solving problems in chemical equilibria would have been thoroughly covered in the texts used to give the reader his "elementary knowledge of the subject." Books on reaotion kinetic6 such as the ones by Frost and Peamon and by Trotman-Dickenson provide coverages of chemioal kinetics whieh the reviewer thinks would be preferable to the nonspecialist interested in reaction rates from an experimental or theoretical point of view. It is true that there are topics not discussed in the three alternate hooks cited as preferenoes. Separate monographs or review articles would have to be consulted for the materid covered in this text on solid state and photochemical reactions, radiochemicd kinetics, and properties of high temperature reacting' systems; hence these parts are useful to have disoussed in one volume.
quantitative ealeulations and carrelations." The holding of such an opinion has not prevented the author from writing a fine book on molecular orbital theory (it may have helped). Still, the opinion itself represents to thia reviewer a state of affairs in organic chemistry in which it may be said that the pendulum has now swung the other way. WILLIAMT. SIMPSON University of Waskingla Seattle
Tutorial Questions in Organic Chemistry P. 8. Ongley, College of Technology, Birmingham, England. University of London Press, Ltd., London, 1959. xii f 276 pp. 14.5 X 22 em. $2.94.
Questions of three general types, and their answem, constitute the major portion of this hook, which is intended to serve as an aid to a student reviewing for an organic examination. Problems are given on preparations, organio reactions, and identification from behavior. Forty probJOHN P. CAESICK lems of the third type were selected tst random and solved by the reviewer. Yale University Four contained errors serious enough to Mew Hauen. Connecticut cause difficulty. In three, there was faulty reference to compounds in the succession of reactions, but the intent was clear from the answers. In another, an Molecular Orbital Theory for Organic incorrect moleoular formule. was given, Chemists with a corresponding pentavalent carhon Andrew St~eitwieser, Jr., University atom in the answer. The answer section of California, Berkeley. John Wiley would have been easier to use if the head& Sons, Ino., New York, 1961. xii ing of each page had given the page num489 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.5 X ber of the corresponding questions. 23.5 cm. $14.50. Two of the three appendices are of little value. The first, a list of trivial names As the author states in the Preface, with formulas, serves no purpose whieh in this book he tries to do three things: could not be met better hy the index of teach Hiickel theory, survey the literature, any good organio text. The second, on and present interpretations (some new) nomenclature, is poorly done. For exof various phenomena in organic ehemample, the prefix "n" is said to be needed istry. In the opinion of this reviewer the in IUPAC nomenclature for chains up to author has done an excellent joh with all six carbons in length. Thus the compound three. which ~ o u l dbe called 3-hexanone hy The teaching part is gentle without Chemical Abstracts and by American being undignified. Moreover, one does chemists is given as n-hexan-3-one. not get the feeling that rigor, or a. poThe position of the looant is British usage; tentiality far rigor, is being subverted either position is acceptable. Also, hyin the cause of simplicity. Topics covered bridization of trivial and IUPAC systems include s. matrix algebraic viewpoint, is frequently given in this book in ways factoring of the secular equation using which are generally avoided by Americans, group representation theory, and various hut which are sometimes used in England. accepted refinements of Hiickel theory are hotylene-1 instead of Examples on the one-electron level. a-butylene or l-hutene, isobutene inThe survey of the literature throughout stead of isohutylene or 2-methylpropene, is broad and balanced. One can see and isoprapanol instead of isopropyl that the author has put in a lot of hard alcohol or 2-propanol. work. 4 tmical example of a nrong and The applications to organic chemistry misleading statement is this quotation are likewise broad and balanced. A from the section on nomenclature of final major section of the book on wactions carboxylic acids. "The lover acids have is the same size as the preceding section trivial names; the higher, systematic; which deals with the better known and the intermediate, both trivial and properties of molecules. Among the less systematic." A s a matter of fact, the usual topics covered in the section on lower acids also have IUPAC names, and reactions are radical reactions and four many of the higher acids hrwe trivial center reactions. Two of the less usual names. On the next page the names topics in the section on properties of methanoic acid and ethanaic acid are used, molecules are electron spin resonances and elsewhere in the book one finds stearic and ionization potentials. acid, etc. The author states that "neither resoThe last appendix is a list of several nance theory nor its parent VB theory is suited for general quantitative or semi(Continued on page A604)
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