Chemistry - Rilegato

JOHN MCMURRY, educated at Harvard and Columbia, has taught approximately 17,000 students in general and organic chemistry over a 30-year period. A Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University since 1980, Dr. McMurry previously spent 13 years on the faculty at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He as received numerous awards, including the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1969-71), the National Institute of Health Career Development Award (1975-80), the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award (1986-87), and the Max Planck Research Award (1991).

ROBERT C. FAY, Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University, has been teaching general and inorganic chemistry at Cornell since 1962. Known for his clear, well-organized lectures, Dr. Fay was the 1980 recipient of the Clark Distinguished Teaching Award. He has also taught as a visiting professor at Harvard University and at the University of Bologna (Italy). A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College, Fay received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. He has been an NSF Science Faculty Fellow at the University of East Anglia and the University of Sussex (England) and a NATO/Heineman Senior Fellow at Oxford University.

Our primary goal in writing this book has been to fashion a clear, coherent narrative. Beginning with atomic structure, proceeding next to bonding and molecules, then to bulk physical properties of substances, and ending with a study of chemical properties, we have told a cohesive story about chemistry. Transitions between topics are smooth, explanations are lucid, and tie-ins to earlier material are frequent. Every attempt has been made to explain chemistry in a visual, intuitive way so that it can be understood by those who give it an honest effort.

Insofar as possible, distractions within the text are minimized. Each chapter is broken into numerous sections to provide frequent breathers, and each section has a consistent format. Sections generally begin with an explanation of their subject, move to an Example problem that shows how to work with the material, and end with one or more Practice Problems for the reader to work through. Each chapter ends with a brief Interlude that describes an interesting application or extension of the chapter subject.