H.W. Salzberg, J.I. Morrow, S.R. Cohen, M.E. Green, ,Physical Chemistry—A Modern Laboratory Course (1969) Academic Press,New York and London xx+528 pages, 89 s.
✍ Scribed by Roger Parsons
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1970
- Weight
- 73 KB
- Volume
- 27
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-0728
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Anyone who teaches physical chemistry in the laboratory is interested in a new book produced by similar teachers in another University (in this case the City College of the City University of NewYork). One is curious to know how their course compares with one's own--which of the standard experiments can we claim to have a better approach to and which of the experiments described in the book can we usefully appropriate and use to improve our course. The description of the course presented here as "modern" raises hopes that someone has at last produced a version of practical physical chemistry which has discarded those well-worn experiments from the great days of Ostwald, Nernst et al. A first flip through these pages suggests that not all of them have gone--the Westphal balance on p. 78 and the Beckman cryoscopic apparatus on p. 107 look rather familiar. However, there is more to justify the adjective with digital voltmeters, analogue computers, mass spectrometry and the various magnetic measurements. The real problem is not the appearance or not of modernity but that of illustrating the fundamentals in an interesting and illuminating way.
The present book is divided into three parts. The first (330 pages) gives the theoretical and experimental background while the second (140 pages) describes 51 experiments. The third consists of 10 appendices, some tabular, others descriptive, ranging from glass-blowing to symmetry. The first part is the easiest to criticize because of the inevitable difference of opinion as to how much background theory should be put into a practical book. In some sections the present book shows signs of overstrain resulting from the attempt to cover too much ground and the consequent superficiality. The sections on electrochemistry and spectroscopy illustrate this. In the former there are too many inaccurate and unqualified statements, e.g.p. 200 where it is suggested that equilibrium electrode potential measurements are less susceptible to contamination because impurities deposit more slowly in the absence of current, or p. 209 where "the diffusion layer, 6, is defined as the distance that the depolarizer has to diffuse to reach the surface".
The instructions for experiments given in Part II are brief outlines, intended to be useful for different types of apparatus. Warnings of particular hazards are given, together with questions for the student. Although some of the experiments are welltried ones, a few provide interesting modern extensions; most of the latter depend on elaborate apparatus.
Among the appendices is one on units and physical constants. Only here is there a reasonable emphasis on the SI or MKSA system. In fact chap. 7 on calorimetry tends to emphasise the calorie, even mentioning the BTU in the first sentence! Similarly on p. 135 the old definition of the ohm is given with no mention of the current definition. This is a beatifully produced volume which seems substantial enough to stand up to laboratory use.