Physical Chemistry for the Chemical and Biological Sciences

I took a p-chem course many years ago, where the professor was using his handwritten notes from a book that was out of print. I learned almost nothing from that course because his handwriting was horrible and there was no uniform system of organizing his thoughts. I took another p-chem course more recently that used this book. This book is much better than no book. Chang does a really good job of organizing info by topic and presenting things in a sort of stepwise order that students can follow to get from one concept to the next. I have seen some better p-chem books on the market that are easier to read though. You will need to have a basic understanding of general chemistry principles, math (geometry, trigonometry, calculus 1 & 2, differential equations) and basic physics (Newtonian and electronics/magnetism at least so you know the difference between electricity and electromagnetism); and a good ability to mentally convert a paper image into 3 dimensions for some of the more advanced stuff.This book will teach you thermodynamics from a chemistry perspective, so if you are an engineer or physicist and have already learned your thermodynamics you will be required to look at the same topics from a different frame of reference, defining "system" and "surroundings" a bit differently so in some cases the flow of energy will be depicted BACKWARDS compared to what you're used to. If you are a chemist, this is not a problem because for the rest of your career you will probably see energy flows depicted the same way they are in this book.If your school offers a p-chem lab course, I highly recommend that in addition to reading this book. Among all the chemistry branches, physical chemistry really is the one that is hardest to comprehend on paper unless your mind is really good at math and mental 3D modeling. Running through some of the experimental work from a companion lab manual will probably help because you'll be able to see from direct measurements how different things affect energy transfer and molecular structure.

Great condition. Only problem is that the spine of the book is kind of detached from the actual text.

This is a great text book, but the text created by the author is too long for use in my Thermodynamics class.

good examples, relatively easy to understand, it's a very good entrance book to physical chemistry. I didn't read the contents regarding biological science, but should be interesting also.

All the other students in my class bought used books for the same price I paid for a brand new. Fast shipping as well.

easy to read and understand. one of the best science books I own.

really don't like this textbook, but school requires it

Great quality.

かつて日本にも海賊版が存在した(今もある？）。発展途上のインドにも海賊版があるのだと，妙に納得した。