Physical Chemistry [antikvár]

PREFACE Established custom seems to call for something in the nature of an apologia for the appearance of a new book dealing with a subject on which many other books already exist. My reasons for having written it are as follows. Since I first studied physical chemistry, I have become increasingly dissatisfied with its text-books, and vowed to write one of my own, on new lines. Ten years after graduating I started my task, which proceeded smoothly enough until, like so many other and more important projects, it stopped in 1939. In that year I had to decide whether I should publish such parts of the book as I had written or wait until I could complete it. I decided to publish, and my Introduction to Physical Chemistry was issued by the Cambridge University Press in 1940. It was kindly received and, though necessarily incomplete, proved to be a useful class book. Before it was reprinted for the second time, I had had the opportunity of correcting certain minor errors, to some of which my attention had been kindly drawn by Professor N. K. Adam of Southampton, Professor Raymond T. Davis, jb., of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and Professor Max Metlay of New York. On returning to Cambridge in 1945, I undertook to deliver a complete course of lectures in physical chemistry to students reading chemistry for Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos, i.e. to undergraduates in their last year of study. This, I saw, was my chance to renew my efforts to provide a comprehensive text-book to accompany the course. The present book is the outcome. Chief among those who have left their mark on it are the undergraduates, now numbering nearly a thousand, with whom, taken two at a time in hourly supervision classes, I have discussed in detail so many different aspects of the subject. The Cambridge undergraduate is frank in his criticism, and if he finds the teaching defective, has no hesitation in expressing his impatience or disapproval. When the book was in its page-proof stage, I sought the opinion of experts on certain sections of it. Dr. J. N. Agar read my treatments of the ionic state and of heterogeneous equilibria; Dr. Mansel Davies those sections which deal with spectra; and Professor A. R. Ubbelohde the chapter on thermodynamics. I am greatly indebted to these gentlemen for their encouraging remarks and friendly criticism, and for certain corrections which have been embodied in the book's present form. The arduous task of reading the proofs and of checking the references and the tables of data was cheerfully undertaken by Professor R. W. Missbk, Dr. D. Harrison, and Mr. Ian Fells. They have also shown me how I could clarify or modernize many passages. Miss Joan Fisher kindly prepared the index of names.