 |
|
Title: Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy with Spartan Student Physical Chemistry Software
ISBN: 0805339795
Author:
Thomas Engel
Philip Reid
Publicate Date: 2006-04-13
Publish: 2006-04-13
List Price: $109.40
Average Customer Rating: 2.5
Format: Hardcover
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $98.54
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $85.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $109.40
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: As described..
Perfect condition, comes with Student version of Spartan which is a good software for chemistry majors alike. The textbook so far is pretty good. Nothing great, but nothing bad.
|
2: A wonderful introduction to quantum chemistry
This book is meant to be an introduction to quantum chemistry, and it does a wonderful job at that. I am surprised at the other reviews complaining of its lack of rigor...this is meant to be an introduction to the subject. If you want something complete and encyclopedic, fine, go buy McQuarrie or something like that. This is meant as a first course quantum chemistry, and it also does an excellent job of introducing the major ideas necessary for graduate quantum chemistry, and is not afraid of doing the real math and operations necessary.
I feel like people are confusing be willing to explain concisely and in everyday language with lack of rigor.
This is written as a graduate student in chemical physics who majored in both chemistry and physics undergrad.
|
3: Good Luck
Unless Engel's Quantum Chemistry book is required for your class I highly recommend avoiding it. If it is required, find yourself another supplementary book. Quantum mechanics is a challenging field for most undergrads such as myself, and unfortunately Engel only manages to confound this difficulty with his text. While at first glance the text appears approachable, don't be fooled. At almost every turn of the page Engel manages to leave you with more questions than answers. In an attempt at simplicity, Engel only accomplishes convolution. Pick up another text such as McQuarrie Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach(I highly recommend) and you will immediately see the differences in clarity, depth, accuracy, etc . The math that QM is largely structured around is neglected, and although the math may be challenging for an average chem major like myself, I found it incredibly necessary to truely understand QM concepts. Another major problem was that the book is loaded with erros. The errors are so blatant and numerous that you end up second guessing a lot of Engel's concepts and explanations, not an ideal situation when learning QM for the first time. All together I'm giving the book 2/5 stars instead of 1/5 because it looks pretty. Looks have to count for something right? Good luck in QM...
|
4: The original idea was good...but the final product leaves much to be desired
I was actually one of the reviewers of an early version of many of the chapters of this text. The text itself makes a nice set of lecture notes and it progresses at a reasonable slow pace. I found the presentation and graphics to be quite nice and clear as if the publishers took their cues from similarly produced general chemistry texts.
The text is hardly encyclopedic and complete compared to other texts, notably McQuarrie and Simon, Atkins,
or the venerable Berry, Rice, and Ross. We decided to adopt this text for our two semester physical chemistry course hoping that students would like the pace and context -- however, 3/4 of the way through the year, it has been a disaster!
While the original draft had the usual density of typos, I'm astonished that so many made it through to the final version! There are numerous wrong equations--mostly annoying typos. Most damning is the fact that a lot of the molecular data in the text is wrong as are a number of the spectra.
Since this is supposed to be a
book focusing on spectroscopy, I find no excuse for this.
Let me give an example, in Table 8.3, which tabulates the vibrational frequencies, bond lengths, rotational constants, etc. for a number of diatomic species, nearly ALL of the vibrational frequencies listed are incorrect in comparison to the NIST database. Furthermore, the ro-vibrational spectra given in the text for HCl and for CO are clearly NOT the experimental spectra since both are systematically shifted relative the correct experimental spectra. (the text's HCl ro-vibrational spectrum is centered at 2991 cm-1 (where the forbidden Q-branch should be) compared to the experimental value of 2888 cm-1. Similarly, for CO, the spectrum should be centered at 2170 cm-1<\sup> and
not at 2143cm-1.) At least the spectra are consistent with the wrong
data in table 8.3! This crops up repeatedly through out the text. It frustrates the students and it's embarrassing. These may seem to be picky and petty details. However, spectroscopy is all about
making precise measurement of molecular properties and dynamics.
One reviewer commented on the clumsy wording of the problems. I agree. Having worked out
many on my group black-board with frustrated students...the problems leave much to be desired.
Again, the general sprit of the problems is good...the final result is not so good.
On the other hand, my class has decided to make lemonade out of a lemon. We've started the "Great
Typo Hunt" web-site where students can earn extra-credit by finding and confirming new typos in the text!
It's become a great sport!
This book does not live up to my expectations.
I highly suggest avoiding this book until an extreme make-over occurs. Even then, I would suggest looking at at different text.
|
5: Don't Buy
This book is the second of the two book set. You can also purchase the set as a single edition, however that would be a mistake. I've used this text in class and besides being heavily mistake ridden, as others noticed, its extremely unhelpful for Quantum and Thermo beginners. Poor choice.
|
|
|
|
|
