User:Carcharoth/Notes on physical chemistry

This page is for notes on a possible rewrite of physical chemistry.

The World of Physical Chemistry

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Notes on the first edition of The World of Physical Chemistry (1993, OUP, Keith J. Laidler). The 1995 edition can be partially previewed at Google Books.

This book is 476 pages, with ten chapters and four appendices and an index. Each chapter ends with a useful list of publications for further reading, and several of the chapters contain tables giving brief timelines ('highlights') for the area of physical chemistry covered in that chapter. The first three chapters cover general and introductory material (including sections on the meaning of the term physical chemistry, on journals, and on the early history that led to the emergence of physical chemistry), followed by seven chapters on specific areas of physical chemistry.

Appendices
  • Scientific periodicals: giving the full names of journals abbreviated elsewhere in the book.
  • References and notes: a massive compendium of primary references.
  • Biographical notes: collection of brief biographies of 146 scientists.
  • References for biographies: list of sources used for writing the biographical notes.
Index
  • Biographical entries are bolded, making it easier to locate them.

Additional notes

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Extending the summary above, the other materials of immediate interest are: (i) the tables giving timelines of discoveries within various subdisciplines; (ii) one of the diagrams provided; and (iii) the 181 scientists for which biographies are provided (146 in an appendix and 35 longer biographies in boxes in the main text).

The tables, diagram, and biographies are summmarised below.

Tables
Diagram
  • Figure 8.1 - [diagram showing ranges and year of discovery for chemical and physical processes] (p.272)
Biographies (text)

The 35 people listed here have extended biographies within the main text of the book.

Biographies (appendix)

This appendix contains 37 pages with short biographies of the following 146 people.