Page 15 - Essentials of physical chemistry

xiv Preface

comment that the ‘‘Math Review’’ was really important for them. Note that equations in the text are
not numbered so as to encourage linking verbal ideas with logic and develop the ability to ‘‘read
mathematics,’’ a skill this author considers very helpful in science.
I have read the reviews of many other texts in physical chemistry and found that they are
seldom positive, although I think a number of those texts are really good. Thus, I anticipate
criticism that I should have done more of this or that, but I know from developing this course over
30 years that you don’t have time to do everything even in two semesters; thus, the one semester
limit requires selection of only a few topics. There should perhaps be more problems, but I know
that most teachers are fiercely independent and prefer their own emphasis; thus, the strategy here
is to focus on the basics and let the teachers provide their own preferred special topics. In truth,
there are already more problems presented here than there is time for in a nine-week summer
course. The strategy here is (1) tell the students what you want them to know, (2) tell them what
you will test them on, (3) give them a large number of past tests to practice on, and then (4) test
them using slightly different questions with at least one new question to separate thinkers from
memorizers. This will allow the memorizers to hopefully learn some of what they memorized! We
know this process can be successful in bringing a group of students to the national average and
above as measured by standardized tests of the American Chemical Society. I will of course be
attentive to any outright error in the text, but this material is basically the notes developed over a
30-year period for the students mentioned earlier using many different texts and with many
successful outcomes. This material has been taught as a one semester course, where usually the
course extended only to Chapter 9, with or without Chapter 8, and in the summer a few students
only take the ‘‘Introduction: Mathematics and Physics Review’’ and Chapters 1 through 9.
The ‘‘second book’’ (Chapters 10 through 16) builds on the math skills developed in the first
semester, Introduction and Chapters 1 through 9. The emphasis in the second semester is on various
forms of spectroscopy built on a foundation of quantum chemistry, and more mathematical details
are given as well as some detailed examples that might be useful in Physical Chemistry Laboratory
courses. Note that the detailed mathematics is there for interested students in several appendices, but
the emphasis on the tests is to learn the bottom line conclusions. Chapter 13 is clearly the most
difficult chapter, but hopefully using the ‘‘m ¼ 0 shortcut’’ will make it easier. There is use of a small
quantum chemistry program (PCLOBE) in Chapters 11 and 16 as explained in Chapter 17. We have
found that you can use molecular orbitals in lecture with PCLOBE shown on a video screen often in
the second semester. There usually will be three or four students (in a class of 40) who really want to
learn this material. Probably not all of the later chapters can be treated in a two semester course, and
it is admitted that the nine-week summer course usually stops at Chapter 16 or 18. Chapter 19 is a
daring venture into what is usually treated in organic chemistry, but modern pulse-NMR is really an
exercise in how to use physical principles of magnetism to make NMR spectroscopy easier to
interpret with the COSY technique as a gateway to more advanced methods. While the variational
treatment of the H1s orbital in Chapter 16 is always treated in this course, the second semester
usually ends after Chapter 15. Thus, the ‘‘third book’’ consists of Chapters 17 through 19, which are
special topics suitable for senior projects or for prospective graduate students.
Other teachers may want more problems to select from but in the fast nine-week course it seems
better to give 5 or 10 problems of good quality a week than a lot of busy work. Some students want
more problems rather than derivations while others prefer memorization. Thus, the sample exam-
inations in the text show a balance of some memorization of derivations and other tough numerical
problems. After the first few weeks in a fast course, students are motivated to prepare for a looming
final examination, and we have found an unorthodox way of coupling their desire to prepare with
presentation of ‘‘essential’’ topics. The latter part of the Summer P. Chem. course semester is
studying and assimilating old examinations including a number of derivations to memorize=learn.
On the last class day of each semester, students go to the board and ‘‘explain’’ a problem from an old
test to the class. Teaching to tests? Yes. Does it work as shown by results on standardized tests?
Yes! In some universities there are fraternity=sorority files of old tests given by various faculty