Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics

Rating:
Summary: Good reference book
Review: A clear, concise explanation of statistical mechanics. Some people may complain about the "concise" part--in many cases, mathematical exercises are left as exercises to the student. However, this practice allows the reader to really understand the material by doing, not just reading. I learned stat mech for the first time from this book, and only examined other texts (mcquarrie or hill) afterwards.

Rating:
Summary: essential reading for any theoretical chemist
Review: I bought this book as a supplement in my graduate stat mech course. I found that McQuarrie, while thorough (in a good way), lacks chapters on thermodynamics and starts off at a high level. Plischke, while encyclopedic, and equally modern, lacks much of the explanation and "physical insight" found in Chandler's presentation. I'm enjoying the text and working through the problems (get the solutions manual, even though its incomplete). There is a lot to be learned from this well written text. It is certainly a valuable resource to any physical scientist.

Rating:
Summary: essential reading for any theoretical chemist
Review: I bought this book as a supplement in my graduate stat mech course. I found that McQuarrie, while thorough (in a good way), lacks chapters on thermodynamics and starts off at a high level. Plischke, while encyclopedic, and equally modern, lacks much of the explanation and "physical insight" found in Chandler's presentation. I'm enjoying the text and working through the problems (get the solutions manual, even though its incomplete). There is a lot to be learned from this well written text. It is certainly a valuable resource to any physical scientist.

Rating:
Summary: Good reference book
Review: This was a great book. It covered the important material and left out all of the extra garbage that most books carry on for pages about. The presentation was done using clear mathematics and modern, easily followed notation. The book is short making it practical to actually read the entire book if you are extremely busy. We used the book in conjunction with Hill. I don't recommend Hill because it is hard to follow.

Rating:
Summary: Caltech Graduate Student
Review: This was a great book. It covered the important material and left out all of the extra garbage that most books carry on for pages about. The presentation was done using clear mathematics and modern, easily followed notation. The book is short making it practical to actually read the entire book if you are extremely busy. We used the book in conjunction with Hill. I don't recommend Hill because it is hard to follow.