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Rating: 
Summary: Well explained - a pleasure to read
Review: I started to read this book in order to figure out how to calculate the heat released by various chemical reactions. I ended up spending a week reading the first 10 chapters (roughly half the book) and working through the majority of the exercises simply because the book was such a pleasure to read. I feel that the material is presented in a logical fashion, the physical meaning of various mathematical functions is well explained, the exercises are set at the correct pitch and lead to a deeper understanding of the theory, and sufficient references are given so that the reader knows where to go to obtain further material (thermochemical data in my case).About a decade ago i completed a postgraduate maths/physics degree so I suppose that may give me an "edge" over some readers. However, the book begins with an introduction to calculus involving many variables which is really the only maths used in the entire book. The book is certainly simple - you won't find much mention of statistical mechanics, for example - but I believe it provides an excellent introduction to the subject of chemical thermodynamics. There is a companion to this book containing answers to many of the exercises.
Rating:
Summary: Well explained - a pleasure to read
Review: I started to read this book in order to figure out how to calculate the heat released by various chemical reactions. I ended up spending a week reading the first 10 chapters (roughly half the book) and working through the majority of the exercises simply because the book was such a pleasure to read. I feel that the material is presented in a logical fashion, the physical meaning of various mathematical functions is well explained, the exercises are set at the correct pitch and lead to a deeper understanding of the theory, and sufficient references are given so that the reader knows where to go to obtain further material (thermochemical data in my case). About a decade ago i completed a postgraduate maths/physics degree so I suppose that may give me an "edge" over some readers. However, the book begins with an introduction to calculus involving many variables which is really the only maths used in the entire book. The book is certainly simple - you won't find much mention of statistical mechanics, for example - but I believe it provides an excellent introduction to the subject of chemical thermodynamics. There is a companion to this book containing answers to many of the exercises.
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