General Chemistry for Engineers, Preliminary Edition - Softcover

Glanville, James O.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130325147 ISBN 13: 9780130325143

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2000

Synopsis

Conforming to the latest ABET2000 standards, this book was developed at one of the largest engineering schools in the United States. It offers a core chemistry curriculum that covers topics of importance to engineers and is rich in materials science applications. Key coverage includes CFCs and air conditioning; Carnot cycle; emulsions, foams, and gels; supercritical fluids; and materials. The many in-chapter and end-of-chapter problems are cast as puzzles of interest rather than simply as exercises to solve—showing the relevance of the chemistry being learned and emphasizing true problem-solving over simple algebraic mastery. For individuals contemplating an engineering career, this book illustrates chemistry, demonstrates its relationship to that field, and addresses the question “Why do I need to know this?”

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Preface

A decent respect for the opinions of humankind demands that an author give some accounting of himself. Why this book'? The answer is straightforward: 1. Because engineering colleagues asked for a one-semester replacement course for the two-semester course sequence that their students had traditionally taken, and 2. Because no suitable book existed. This book began with me sitting down with my engineering colleagues, asking what arc the essential, bedrock materials, and then writing a curriculum to match it. The book was born as a series of web-based chapters in the Fall of 1998, grew to a self-published volume in the Fall of 1999, and was heavily revised to become this preliminary edition for the Fall of 2000.

ABET describes itself this way: "The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) is primarily responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and certifying the quality of engineering, engineering technology, and engineering-related education in colleges and universities in the United States." Here's how ABET defines engineering: "Engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind." Engineers arc the people who make things with stuff, and chemists make the stuff.

The theme of the book is simple: All the stuff that engineers use and apply is composed of chemical entities (atoms, molecules, and ions). The bulk properties of matter derive from those entities and the forces among them. To understand chemistry is to understand stuff. The book is organized into five parts, broadly going from the more simple to the more complex.

Part 1. Chemical Fundamentals: Atoms (including nuclides and isotopes), molecules and ions, moles and stoichiometry, and units and measurements. Part 2. The Nature of Chemical Bonding: Gases and intermolecular forces. Electrons in atoms and chemical bonding. Part 3. Chemical Thermodynamics and Chemical Equilibrium. Characterization of the properties of chemical entities and the nature of a chemical reaction process. Part 4. Properties of Matter: Properties of liquids and liquid mixtures, solids and the basics of materials science. Relationship among the states of aggregation of matter. Part 5. Applied Chemistry. Descriptive chemistry and the periodic table. The nature of redox chemistry and electrochemistry. Rate processes and the aging of materials.

Throughout the book I have stressed problem solving and engineering approximation. The students in my classroom want to know why the material I am presenting is relevant to their lives and to their professional careers. So I try to answer those questions as we go along, often and in various ways. Experimental uncertainty is not something to be discussed in Chapter 1 and then dropped. It is an ongoing topic and one with very distinguished roots in engineering, as I point out in Appendix B.

Likewise, throughout the book I have tried to use punctiliously what IUPAC calls the algebra-of-quantities. Experimental uncertainty and the algebra-of-quantities are given extensive treatment in the Solutions Manual, which I wrote as an integral part of writing the text, and not as an afterthought. (To order this for yourselves or your students, please contact your Prentice Hall representative and ask about ISBN 0-13-032514-7).

Designing, preparing, and interpreting graphs remains an important part of science and engineering. Most of the text were prepared by the author, and graphing exercises are included to encourage the student to do likewise.

Engineering students are computer literate and internet savvy. I have learned a lot from them. To take advantage of their skill I introduced internet searching as a key component of the book. Throughout the book you'll find entries such as *kws +topic +"another topic". The initials "kws" stand for "key word search." The symbol *kws suggests you do an internet search with your favorite search engine. The internet is a gigantic, dynamic, rapidly accessible encyclopedia. Many times in the course of preparing material I have been able to find needed information quickly efficiently by using the internet. I am convinced that learning how to search the internet effectively is an important 21st-century skill that, once learned, becomes invaluable.

Obviously, there can be no complete agreement on either the content or the order of presentation for a course so new. However, I have been gratified by the response of my reviewers, several of whom told me that I have independently arrived at the sequence they themselves concluded was appropriate for a one-semester general chemistry course for engineers. But authors notwithstanding, the best teaching takes place when the instructor does it her or his way and is deeply involved in developing and organizing the course. A wise editor once wrote: "Kinetics before or after equilibrium? This point always comes up. It can be argued both ways. Remember the folks who will swap the two around and see if you can't engineer the discussion to make such a swap less unruly." In writing and revising material I've tried to keep that advice firmly in mind. Acknowledgments

In preparing this revised edition I have been greatly helped by two old friends, Luther Brice and David West. My heartfelt thanks to them both. In their different ways they have worked very hard to keep me free from error. I, and not they, am responsible for all the mistakes that remain.

At Prentice-Hall I begin by thanking John Challice, who has placed in me a level of confidence that I can only aspire to deserve. Thanks in turn to Paul Corey and Tim Bozik, whose support was no less palpable for being largely silent. On a day-to-day basis my thanks to Gillian Buonanno, who steered me through the shoals. My thanks also to Don Beville for much wise and businesslike advice. Thanks to the entire Prentice-Hall chemistry team. Thanks to Prentice-Hall production staff, and particularly my page formatter, Allyson Graesser, for fast, professional turnaround.

I also thank my many professional reviewers, many of whom still remain unknown to me. Their kind words of encouragement sustained me in moments of self-doubt. Their stern words of criticism challenged me to try ever harder. My thanks to my colleagues at Virginia Tech, both faculty and staff, in the Chemistry Department and in the College of Engineering.

Friends, supporters and teachers: Kershi Cambata, Monty Crewe, Mike Curry, Bob Eiffert, Dick Fichter, Sam Grim, Ken King, John Schug, Eric Templeton (and family), Jimmy Viers, Bob Willis, and Karen Willis. My committee of engineers: Greg Adel, Bill Conger, Jerry Diffell, Theo Dillaha, David Dillard, and Bev Watford. People who helped: Patricia Amateis, Bill Bebout, Harold Bell, Tom Bell, Jeff Clark, Jim Coulter, Paul Deck, Cindy Dillard, John Dillard, William Ducker, Jeannine Eddleton, Paul Field, Larry Jackson, Rich Gandour, Tom Glass, Jack Good, Hayden Griffin, Jim Hall, Brian Hanson, Travis Heath, Wanda Hensley, Milos Hudlicky, Vicki Hutchison, Geno Iannaccone, Darryl Iler, Kezia Johnson, Michael Jordan, Mike Johnson, Owen Lofthus, Judi Lynch, Herve Marand, Angela McCracken, John Murray, Gwen Nickerson, Harold McNair, Angie Miller, Susan Nichols, Carl Nocera, Tim Pickering, The Pioneers, Patti Prevo, Eric Remy, Judy Riffle, Rob Russell, George Sanzone, Linda Sheppard, Carla Slobodnick, Mark Stone, Jim Tanko, Larry Taylor, Jim Wightman, Tom Ward, Sarah Wheeler, and Jim Wolfe. Feedback

As a teacher, nothing gratifies me more than interactions with students and colleagues. This preliminary edition has been made available precisely so that you, students and instructors, can view it, ponder it, use it, and form an opinion about it. Tell me how I can make it work better for you. Please know that all feedback is welcome.

Since the advent of the web it's become a tradition for me to maintain a "boo file" for my courses. That's a place when I post all the mistakes and fixes, along with the names of the people who point them out. Send in the boos.

Jim Glanville
jglanvil@vt
Blacksburg July 2000

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0130325147
• ISBN 13: 9780130325143
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 663