![]() ![]() There are apparently several versions of this 2006 8th edition. That "aha" experience is so frequently felt while reading this book it's hard to put it down, for anything. ![]() ![]() the familiar constructive & destructive interference (wave mechanics) applied to wave functions (Schrödinger's sometimes confounding quantum probability description) yielding electron orbitals with shapes that suddenly make sense. Most often through analogies to what we know well, e.g. Atkins uses varied tools with so many well-chosen angles on description that the reader sees things in nature never realized before. In those far off years of the university experience for this reader, it was said only a genius could grasp physical chemistry - not true, at least not with Atkins leading the way. Not only is the topic fascinating on its own (mostly the physics of molecules), but Atkins raises it to the level of riveting. Rare is it to find a technical text that reads more like a novel, but Atkins does. Murray Rothland wrote, "Every once in a while the human race pauses in the job of botching its affairs and redeems itself by a noble work of the intellect". ![]()
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