Best textbook for physical chem

[Fakesmile]

My physical chem prof said we can choose to stick with any of the texts below (listed by author names) for the course:
-McQuarrie and Simon
-Atkins and de Paula
-Engel and Reid
-Silbey and Alberty
-Laidler, Meiser & Sanctuary

He gave stylized assigned readings for each text, with different page numbers or chapters depending on the text. For those of you who have taken physical chem, which textbook did you find most useful?

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[kavorca]

I used Atkins. I liked it, although I have little to compare it to.

 

[Pills Of Soap]

I used McQuarrie and Simon. It sucks a lot. I heard it referred to as the 'bible of physical chemistry.'

I felt that the readings never helped and the material is not presented in an undergraduate-friendly way.

 

[tlaloc87]

I thought McQuarrie was the best for QM. Atkins, despite it's poorly-worded questions and boring style, is what all my chem profs used as a desk reference in office hours.

 

[Fakesmile]

I used McQuarrie and Simon. It sucks a lot. I heard it referred to as the 'bible of physical chemistry.'

I felt that the readings never helped and the material is not presented in an undergraduate-friendly way.

McQuarrie and Simon is the one I have right now. I skimmed through it and noticed it's quite heavy in calculus. Do you think that's what made it not so undergraduate-friendly?
Btw, if the text sucks, then how come it's referred to as the bible of p-chem?

I thought McQuarrie was the best for QM. Atkins, despite it's poorly-worded questions and boring style, is what all my chem profs used as a desk reference in office hours.

But Quantum mechanics is different from p-chem. If Atkins is what profs usually used as a reference in office hours, then I think Atkins must be really good. It doesn't matter that Atkins's questions suck because my prof isn't going to assign textbook questions for homework anyway.

 

[pomchem]

I used Atkins for PChem I and II. I think it was pretty useful, especially for the thermo stuff...the questions are sometimes worded poorly (like someone said above), but the answer guide helps a lot, there are plenty of examples, etc. My professor used a lot of personalized notes for the quantum mechanics section so I used the book less....but we used questions from the text as well as her own written examples, so Atkins seemed to work well enough.

Good luck. just use pv=nrt for almost everything haha.😳

 

[Wiingy]

I used McQuarrie Simons and highly recommend it. The math gets a bit intense but it's explained well and if your professor is a good lecturer you will be fine.

P-chem is math/calculus heavy (a math major friend noticed it the first practical use of partial differentiation he'd ever seen) so I can't really imagine a book that isn't calculus heavy. Thankfully McQuarrie-Simons lays out the proofs in great detail and I found the end of chapter problems useful.

Like most people I have no experience with more than one book so your best bet is probably to ask some upperclassmen what they though or check the reviews on amazon.

 

[dancingDO14]

I used Atkins for Pchem I and McQuarrie for Pchem II. I liked McQuarrie MUCH better than Atkins. However, my situation might be different than yours. 1, since your teacher is giving you an option it probably won't really matter what book you get. 2, at my school, Pchem I is a broad overview and Pchem II is only offered for advanced track chem majors and requires calc 2. McQuarrie is calc heavy and it's not the easiest to read, but it's all there. Everything. My Pchem II class was basically quant mechanics and spectroscopy so if your class will emphasize that, I would go for McQuarrie over Atkins. But Atkins was more approachable in my opinion, so if your class is more of a broad overview of pchem, that might be the better choice for you. Hope that helps!

PS- McQuarrie is a monster of a book, but I got it on Amazon for only $70ish I think (if I remember correctly). Atkins was more expensive I think, and McQuarrie is worth every cent.

 

[christina30]

Atkins. But if you have an option, it must not make a big difference.

"But Quantum mechanics is different from p-chem. If Atkins is what profs usually used as a reference in office hours, then I think Atkins must be really good. It doesn't matter that Atkins's questions suck because my prof isn't going to assign textbook questions for homework anyway."

Quantum Mechanics IS P. Chem II.

 

[Fakesmile]

Atkins. But if you have an option, it must not make a big difference.

"But Quantum mechanics is different from p-chem. If Atkins is what profs usually used as a reference in office hours, then I think Atkins must be really good. It doesn't matter that Atkins's questions suck because my prof isn't going to assign textbook questions for homework anyway."

Quantum Mechanics IS P. Chem II.

I thought quantum mechanics was an area of physics. 😕

 

[christina30]

I thought quantum mechanics was an area of physics. 😕

uh, its called PHYSICAL chemistry for a reason.

 

[Phlex]

Atkins has both thermo and quantum. McQuarrie is only quantum and goes into a little more depth than Atkins quantum. It you have to take I and II, go for Atkins.

 

[Phlex]

Don't worry about the calc part for quantum. You're gonna see a lot of integrals and derivatives, but its the same things over and over again mostly from the Born interpretation and Schrodinger eqn.

 

[Wiingy]

Atkins has both thermo and quantum. McQuarrie is only quantum and goes into a little more depth than Atkins quantum. It you have to take I and II, go for Atkins.

McQuarrie has thermo - our school used an odd schedule where Pchem I is quantum and Pchem II is thermo, McQuarrie was the text for both and we didn't use any supplemental material.

 

[Phlex]

McQuarrie has thermo - our school used an odd schedule where Pchem I is quantum and Pchem II is thermo, McQuarrie was the text for both and we didn't use any supplemental material.

Yeah actually I think I have the quantum only book from McQuarrie

 

[surftheiop]

We used that beast of a book, M & Simon for PChem 2. That thing weighs like 20lbs and the statistical mechanics stuff gets rather nasty if I remember right

We used Griffiths for quantum mech (PChem1), I thought that book was pretty sweet.

 

[surftheiop]

Atkins. But if you have an option, it must not make a big difference.

"But Quantum mechanics is different from p-chem. If Atkins is what profs usually used as a reference in office hours, then I think Atkins must be really good. It doesn't matter that Atkins's questions suck because my prof isn't going to assign textbook questions for homework anyway."

Quantum Mechanics IS P. Chem II.

Then what is P. Chem 1?

Seems that quantum mechanics should be PChem1 then Pchem2 uses statistical mechanics to bridge from quantum to thermo/other "macro" topics

 

[christina30]

McQuarrie has thermo - our school used an odd schedule where Pchem I is quantum and Pchem II is thermo, McQuarrie was the text for both and we didn't use any supplemental material.

My professor did the same thing, and it made sense (micro -> macro). But I know 99% if Pchem courses are taught the opposite way, so that's how I refer to them.

To the poster above me, Pchem I is thermodynamics, obv.

 

[surftheiop]

My professor did the same thing, and it made sense (micro -> macro). But I know 99% if Pchem courses are taught the opposite way, so that's how I refer to them.

To the poster above me, Pchem I is thermodynamics, obv.

But it seems really counter-intuitive to do statistical mechanics and partition functions before having quantum mechanics.

 

[christina30]

But it seems really counter-intuitive to do statistical mechanics and partition functions before having quantum mechanics.

Stat. Mech. was taught as part of pchem I (quantum mechanics) for my course - I don't know how most profs/schools design their courses, but mine was done very differently than the norm.

 

[tjquinn]

I used Engel and Reid and it was a great book (some errors in answer key). I would definitely recommend it.

 

[surftheiop]

Stat. Mech. was taught as part of pchem I (quantum mechanics) for my course - I don't know how most profs/schools design their courses, but mine was done very differently than the norm.

That's what we did too, I dont really understand how it could be done any other way

 

[christina30]

That's what we did too, I dont really understand how it could be done any other way

Well it is done that way probs 99% of the time, so it must be possible.

 

[surftheiop]

Well it is done that way probs 99% of the time, so it must be possible.

Its been awhile since I took the class, so my memory is getting rusty.

Maybe it doesn't actually take any quantum mechanics to arrive at the statistical mechanics basis of thermo?

I guess everything in here looks pretty "classical" (unless someone who remembers their Pchem better than I can remind me!).

So maybe you could just start a thermo class by summing up micro states without knowing any quantum. But I think I would have been pretty skeptical of that type of reasoning without having taken QM first.

 

[SweetRain]

It really depends on your prof's teaching style but I personally thought Atkins books (including gen chem text) were the worst books ever.
There's another one written by Ira Levine and it was quite helpful.

Peter Atkins has a goal of either publishing a new book or revising an existing one every other year and he is a multi millionaire. I don't think he deserves to be one when the revision makes no improvement.

 

[dancingDO14]

I think it depends on the school...I don't go to an R1/science-emphasized school, so for us Pchem I barely brushes quantum mechanics and mostly emphasizes thermodynamics. My pchem II class included only 5 other students and all we did was quant and spec. I think it depended also on our professors. It very well could be the other way around for other schools, but for us, pchem I was just an overview for those that had only completed calc 1, and not calc 2.

In any case, to refer to the OP original question, I've have both the Atkins and McQuarrie texbooks. Atkins was great for my Pchem I class, which was more of a broad overview. I would never have survived my Pchem II class with Atkins and I really liked McQuarrie. A few of my friends taking Pchem I this semester actually asked to borrow my McQuarrie text for further understanding. If both books are about equal in price, I'd go with McQuarrie.

 

[christina30]

It really depends on your prof's teaching style but I personally thought Atkins books (including gen chem text) were the worst books ever.
There's another one written by Ira Levine and it was quite helpful.

Peter Atkins has a goal of either publishing a new book or revising an existing one every other year and he is a multi millionaire. I don't think he deserves to be one when the revision makes no improvement.

You're crazy if you think Atkins is the only one doing this - that's how the entire textbook industry works. Constantly churning out new editions while making small changes in order to force students to buy said new edition, rendering older editions practically obsolete - is the norm.

 

[surftheiop]

Anyone else use the Griffiths quantum book? I thought it had the most funniest cover/back art of any textbook I had ever had.

 

[tlaloc87]

But Quantum mechanics is different from p-chem. If Atkins is what profs usually used as a reference in office hours, then I think Atkins must be really good. It doesn't matter that Atkins's questions suck because my prof isn't going to assign textbook questions for homework anyway.

QM most definitely IS part of physical chemistry. I don't know why you think otherwise. As for the questions, regardless of whether your prof assigns Atkins problems as homework the Atkins questions are pretty useless because they are horrible. I was just offering some friendly advice in the event you were considering using Atkins for additional practice problems...

 

[dancingDO14]

QM most definitely IS part of physical chemistry. I don't know why you think otherwise. As for the questions, regardless of whether your prof assigns Atkins problems as homework the Atkins questions are pretty useless because they are horrible. I was just offering some friendly advice in the event you were considering using Atkins for additional practice problems...

+1

On that note, I've asked a couple physics majors for help this year when QM was kicking my butt and none of them, even seniors, had done QM. They do quantum physics, but they do not do the chemistry aspect at all.

 

[astrife]

I used Engels for Pchem II, and I really hated it. I got much more out of the lectures than I did reading the book. Although the homework does help to bring it all together, but if your professor doesn't provide some of the answers to the questions your lost because the solutions manual won't provide all of them.