- Email: [email protected]
Problems in physical organic chemistry
Journalof MolecularStructure, 26 (1975) 443-446 443 o Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
Book reviews Problems in Physical Organic Chemistry, London, 1972, pp. 103, price $1.95.
by A. R. Butler, John Wiley,
The scope of this book is indicated by some of the subject headings; Inductive, Resonance, and Steric Effects; Hammett Relationship; Kinetics; Salt and Solvent Effects; Isotopes; Complex Formation; Conservation of Orbital Symmetry. Readers of this Journal may deprecate the-omission of problems on structure determination and spectroscopy, but the author points out that several collections of problems on these subjects are already available. The 117 problems in the book are carefully selected and graded, and are accompanied by worked solutions; a welcome feature of the latter is the provision of references to the original research papers. A student using this book would undoubtedly learn much from it, but most undergraduates will unfortunately be deterred by the price of almost 2p per page. Their more affluent teachers may well wish to purchase it to provide material for tutorials. B. J. W.
to the Quantum Chemistry of Solids, by C. M. Quinn, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1973, pp_ viii + 308, price $7.00.
An Introduction
The stated intention of the author in writing this book is to provide an introduction to those aspects of the quantum theory of solids conveniently classified as energy band theory. In this respect, the book fulfills its purpose admirably and will find a deserving place on many a book shelf. In formulating the title of the book, however, the author has tried to “emphasize my intention that the presentation should appeal to solid state and surface chemists and materials scientists and enable them to follow . _ _ quantum mechanical concepts normally excluded from chemistry courses”. This is an admirable objective, but I cannot feel that it is realistic to say that the author has largely achieved this aim. Only a writer gifted with the communication powers of the late Charles Co&on could bring off such a feat, and the present author’s style is closer to the formal side of presentation than to that happy knack of making the difficult seem simple. How many chemists are at home with plane waves and infinite series, not to mention Green functions? The point is, that one requires real facility and ease in the use of these concepts and not just a nodding acquaintance with them before one can read a work of this kind. Would that it were otherwise but it is not! Within the more restricted objective of a treatise on energy band theory, the reviewer enjoyed the work’s clarity and precision of style. There are five
Book reviews Problems in Physical Organic Chemistry, London, 1972, pp. 103, price $1.95.
by A. R. Butler, John Wiley,
The scope of this book is indicated by some of the subject headings; Inductive, Resonance, and Steric Effects; Hammett Relationship; Kinetics; Salt and Solvent Effects; Isotopes; Complex Formation; Conservation of Orbital Symmetry. Readers of this Journal may deprecate the-omission of problems on structure determination and spectroscopy, but the author points out that several collections of problems on these subjects are already available. The 117 problems in the book are carefully selected and graded, and are accompanied by worked solutions; a welcome feature of the latter is the provision of references to the original research papers. A student using this book would undoubtedly learn much from it, but most undergraduates will unfortunately be deterred by the price of almost 2p per page. Their more affluent teachers may well wish to purchase it to provide material for tutorials. B. J. W.
to the Quantum Chemistry of Solids, by C. M. Quinn, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1973, pp_ viii + 308, price $7.00.
An Introduction
The stated intention of the author in writing this book is to provide an introduction to those aspects of the quantum theory of solids conveniently classified as energy band theory. In this respect, the book fulfills its purpose admirably and will find a deserving place on many a book shelf. In formulating the title of the book, however, the author has tried to “emphasize my intention that the presentation should appeal to solid state and surface chemists and materials scientists and enable them to follow . _ _ quantum mechanical concepts normally excluded from chemistry courses”. This is an admirable objective, but I cannot feel that it is realistic to say that the author has largely achieved this aim. Only a writer gifted with the communication powers of the late Charles Co&on could bring off such a feat, and the present author’s style is closer to the formal side of presentation than to that happy knack of making the difficult seem simple. How many chemists are at home with plane waves and infinite series, not to mention Green functions? The point is, that one requires real facility and ease in the use of these concepts and not just a nodding acquaintance with them before one can read a work of this kind. Would that it were otherwise but it is not! Within the more restricted objective of a treatise on energy band theory, the reviewer enjoyed the work’s clarity and precision of style. There are five