Physical Chemistry
"I think the quality of problems and examples is good, and their number is sufficient. Examples in the manuscript are good, and explained thoroughly, without omitting intermediate steps. This is a big plus for Dr. Ball's text. Again, I think that the writing style is very good, language is simple and clear. I will add here that the author's idea to provide some biographical information and portraits of major physical chemists is excellent.""The problems and examples seem to be numerous and cover an appropriate range of activities. I do like the breadth of theoretical and numerical examples and problems offered, and I like the continual attention to units--to the point of actually providing examples and problems that address nothing else. Units are an important issue in scientific calculations, one that is often overlooked or under-appreciated by chemistry texts."    "Ball's writing style is well-suited for his target audience. His straight-forward, plain English style is easily followed and, I think, would tend to speak TO students rather than OVER them. Students should find his somewhat informal language and candid description to be more palatable than are the traditional formal prose used in many physical chemistry texts. With a textbook that spoke more understandably to begin with, I could imagine spending more time on discussions of concepts rather than discourses on formulation. I think this would be a positive contribution to a learning environment.""The biggest strength of the manuscript is that it carefully and clearly explains the logic used in the derivations and the examples. The level of explanation, exercises, etc. is consistent. I really liked the way that Dr. Ball had students think about units first and then worry about the numbers. That is a weak point for many students and having the text clearly use this approach is a real plus. The author set out to generate a user-friendly physical chemistry text and he has succeeded in doing it. This manuscript has a straight-ahead no nonsense feel about it. It is very much ordered as this is what you need to know, this is what it means, and this is how you use it.""I certainly agree with the author's attempts to make the textbook less intimidating and encyclopedic. Many physical chemistry textbooks, with the necessary extensive use of mathematical symbolism, are often quite imposing to the average student. Using as many approaches as practicable to make the presentations more reader friendly is a noble, worthwhile goal. The author's uses of introductory chapter synopses, many clearly worked examples, clear derivations, and end-of-chapter summaries are very helpful."    "The author includes many carefully worked example problems. These are very helpful in building confidence and reinforcing the student's understanding of concepts. He shows the method for solving these in considerable detail with explanations and often follows up with some discussion of the significance of the result. The author's writing style is very straightforward, clear, and to the point. It would be quite readable by my students. The vocabulary level is generally appropriate for sophomore/junior college students.""I was very pleased with the number of examples included in the body of the chapter; in some cases it seemed like a factor of two more than in other texts. I think this is vital to a student's understanding of the material. I was also pleased to see the problems at the end of the chapter grouped by sections. Students must have a series of problems, starting easy and working up in difficulty, in order to work the most challenging problems. I was overall pleased with the balance between simpler and more difficult problems as well as the balance between quantitative and qualitative questions. The latter are too often neglected in physical chemistry texts. I was also pleased to see many problems relating to real world situations. Thermodynamics is much more interesting when applied to problems other than adiabatic expansions of ideal gases! I found the writing style to be conversational and very easy to follow."    "The strengths of this manuscript are the detail, mathematical level, and development of the text, the number and quality of example problems, and the selection and range of difficulty in the end of chapter problems."