Subject: physical chemistry
“Is this subject hard?”
—The entire text of a Usenet posting to sci.chem,September 1, 1994W
HAT THIS PERSON’S QUESTION LACKED IN LENGTH, it made up for in angst.
I spent almost an hour composing a response, which I posted. My
response generated about half a dozen direct responses, all supporting my state-
ments. Curiously, only half of the responses were from students; the other half
were from professors.
Generally, I said that physical chemistry isn’t inherently harder than any
other technical subject. It isvery mathematical, and students who may have for-
mally satisfied the math requirements (typically calculus) may still find physi-
cal chemistry a challenge because it requires them to applythe calculus. Many
instructors and textbooks can be overly presumptuous about the math abilities
of the students, and consequently many students falter—not because they can’t
do the chemistry, but because they can’t follow the math.
Also, in some cases the textbooks themselves are inappropriate for the level
of a junior-year course (in my opinion). Many textbooks contain so much
information that they blow the students away. Many of them are great books—
for reference, on a professor’s bookshelf, or for a graduate student studying for
cumulative exams. But for undergraduate chemistry and chemical engineering
majors taking physical chemistry for the first time? Too much! It’s like using the
Oxford English Dictionaryas a text for English 101. Sure, the OED has all the
vocabulary you would ever need, but it’s overkill. Many physical chemistry texts
are great for those who already know physical chemistry, but not for those who
are trying to learnphysical chemistry. What is needed is a book that works as a
textbook, not as an encyclopedia, of physical chemistry.
This project is my attempt to address these ideas.Physical Chemistryis meant
to be a textbookfor the year-long, calculus-based physical chemistry course for
science and engineering majors. It is meant to be used in its entirety, and it does
not contain a lot of information (found in many other physical chemistry
books) that undergraduate courses do not cover. There is some focus on math-
ematical manipulations because many students have forgotten how to apply
calculus or could use the review. However, I have tried to keep in mind that this
should be a physical chemistry text, not a math text.
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