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Preface

The basis of physical chemistry is the ability to solve numerical
problems. It is generally agreed that it is not with inorganic and
organic chemistry that first-year and preliminary-year undergraduate
students have the greatest difficulty, but instead the numerical
problem-solving aspect of physical chemistry. The global trend of
below-average marks in physical chemistry in first-year and preli-
minary-year chemistry papers needs to be addressed.
The preparation of textbooks has been made much easier by the
improvements in the technology of book production. This has resulted
in the production of much more colourfully attractive textbooks of
general and introductory chemistry. This would not be a problem if
the basic principles of chemistry were still clearly identifiable. Un-
fortunately, often this is not the case and the principles, even when
well described, are lost beneath a wealth of factually unconnected
data, that is unnecessary for the student to learn.
This is particularly apparent in the sections on basic introductory
physical chemistry. Although many of these 1 000-page textbooks
contain well-written individual chapters on thermochemistry, equili-
brium, electrochemistry and kinetics, with attractive diagrams, the
fundamentals are sometimes lost in a sea of historical facts. No
connectivity between the chapters is introduced and the impression
is that each subject is divorced from the other sections. What is
more disturbing is that although numerical problems and solutions
do appear in such textbooks, no logical stepwise procedure is
presented, leaving the student totally isolated when faced with a
similar problem. Equally, the appearance of 60-70 numerical pro-
blems at the end of each chapter is unrealistic and inappropriate at
this level. This approach is fine in more advanced physical chemistry
textbooks, but such complexity and number of problems is not