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vi Preface
suitable for a basic undergraduate introductory course on physical
chemistry!
The ability to solve numerical problems is the foundation of any
physical chemistry course. This text-book is dedicated to those first-
year and preliminary-year chemistry students who have not previously
taken A-level or Leaving Certificate chemistry, or any student who
finds major difficulty with physical chemistry problems at this level.
Sadly, the skill of numerical problem-solving is being relegated to a
bare nothing in secondary-level chemistry courses. The amount of
physical chemistry that is taught is progressively being eroded away in
schools, leaving first-year and preliminary-year chemistry students
facing a complete cultural shock when posed with the volume of
numerical problems which they must solve, on entrance to universities
and tertiary-level institutions. This worrying trend may account for
the poor first-year and preliminary-year examination results returned
in physical chemistry papers.
Current textbooks do little to identify and confront this problem. A
gentle systematic step-wise approach of a ‘Working Method’ is one
method of addressing this decline in marks and the difficulty that
students face with physical chemistry. Ironically, in many textbooks,
working methods are mentioned; however, these appear with great
infrequency. The aim of this textbook is to treat each numerical
problem in introductory physical chemistry with the systematic step-
wise approach of the ‘working method’. Students need to gain
confidence in tackling numerical problems and a systematic approach
can certainly help. The text does not imply offering ‘recipes’for solving
such problems, but hopefully it will encourage students to think out their
own approach. We believe that if students can get started on such
problems, this approach will encourage the students to think for
themselves when faced with morz challenging problems. Equally, a
working method on graphical problems is presented, a rarity in
physical chemistry textbooks at this level, and yet essential in so many
other subjects in science, such as physics, biochemistry, nutrition,
geography, optometry, food science, etc.; undergraduate students of
these courses rely on a good basic chemistry course to develop such a
skill.
The present text tries to overcome the limitations of these texts,
by covering the basic principles of introductory physical chemistry
in a short and concise way. Each chapter contains an introduction,
followed by a typical examination question at the appropriate
level, and then takes the student stepwise through the working
method.