Quanta: A Handbook of Concepts, Second Edition (Softcover)

Condition

GOOD: This book is in good condition, showing some of the usual signs of use and wear (slightly bent corners). The pages are free of writing and the spine is intact.
NOTE: British spelling.

Product Details

From the back cover: "Entries—ordered alphabetically—range in length from one paragraph to several pages, and each describes the physical significance of a topic with simplicity and precision. Pictorial descriptions and analogies are used to provide insight into this important area of chemistry, with additional mathematical details given in boxed sections within the text. All entries are extensively cross-referenced and all end with a helpful guide to sources of further information.

"This exciting new work continues the tradition of the first edition, which quickly established itself among students and teachers as a rich source of clear, concise explanations of quantum concepts. The text has been completely rewritten and updated, and now includes many more illustrations, an extended bibliography, and numerous new entries. Quanta will be invaluable to students for its brief, non-mathematical summaries of key concepts; to instructors as a source of explanations, illustrations, and references; and to all practicing scientists searching for an interesting, accessible account of almost any aspect of quantum chemistry."

From the Author in the Preface

"I have written Quanta with a broad selection of people in mind. Those who are not the target are the professional quantum chemists: this is not a detailed, exhaustive account of technical details about quantum mechanics and the computation of molecular structures. The readers that I do have in mind are principally students of chemistry, who at all stages of their studies encounter unfamiliar, little understood or half forgotten concepts. I hope they will find some enlightenment—and perhaps be brought to the edge of deep understanding—if they read through the appropriate entry and look at the illustrations. I also have in mind that other class of students, the teachers of students, who are pressed for explanations by their students or look for presentations that they can use in lectures. Finally, I think of practising chemists everywhere—in all the branches, roots, and twigs of the subject—who may need to be reminded of a concept. In summary, I like to think of the book as a gentle, largely non-technical, accessible resource of concepts, pictures, and elucidations."