Customer Reviews
Helpfull book - By: F. Ghaffur, 18 Jul 2007 
This book is excellent for chemistry undergrads & postgrads. It is quite a hard read & you need to pick out the small part that you need to know about because it is writtenin detail. However the small details you select from this book aid your overall understanding of physical chemistry & is very helpfull. I think this book is written to a level which is higher than a chemistry degree. I used this bookin my first year at university as an chemistry undergrad & found it extremly helpful. It is one of the core texts required for chemistry students at the university of manchester. If i found this book helpful so can you
Not for the complete novice, but invaluable for everyone else interested in the subject - By: Io, 20 Jun 2007 Let's start with saying that the authors pull no mathematical punches. They assume a fair amount of maths & use it throughout, & notin the watered-down fashion, so often seen.
Optically, the book is a gem, & the authors have gone to great pains to use all the tricks at the modern printer's disposal.
Despite being, perhaps, somewhat heavy going if you lack the prerequisites, they manage to clarify almost anything for the reader willing to spend the effort.
One amazing thing is, that one does not require a stiff backgroundin chemistry itself. Possible stumbling blocks liein the maths, & the autors are extremely generous with worked examples & justifications.
A very useful feature is that the reader can cover one of two tracks, the traditional approach & the molecular approachin either order he or she chooses. The molecular approach doesn't start until chapter 8, but if you wish, you can jumpin right there & hardly feel a loss not having read the previous seven. (It is heartily recommended that you do anyway -the classical approach is a beautiful subjectin its own right.)
So, Mr. Atkins & Mr. de Paula, continue improving your shining work, if you can come up with ways to do so. As the book is now, I imagine new ideas are getting hard to come by, but if someone buys just one book on physical chemistry, this should be it.
An excellent text for the undergraduate - By: , 10 Mar 2005 The fact that I've had the author as a lecturer for part of my physical chemistry course is helpful enough, but every topic that an undergraduate may requuire for their physical chemistry course should be foundin here, &in my opinion, all are representedin reasonable detail. Occasionally, you may need to consult a more specialist textbook on a particular sub-topic, but even if you were to soley use this book as a guide, you could expect a comfortable pass. Probably the only physical chemistry textbook you should consider.
Classic case of quantity of quality - By: , 12 Feb 2004 
I won't deny that this book covers a phenomenal range of topics, but this isn't necessarily a good thing. In so many subjects it just doesn't contain enough material to be usefulin preparing for undergraduate exams or workshops. If your lecturers follow this text closely then fine, this will probably be a very sensible buy, but otherwise look elsewhere.
That this is, as another reviewer pointed out, the de facto undergrad physical chemistry text is a problem because there isn't really a widely-available alternative. Lazy lecturers just recommend this book if their course isin physical or physical inorganic chemistry as they seem to assume it will contain everything their students need. Sadly this is rarely the case (in my experience). It may be worth obtaining some of the OUP primers for some of the more specialist topics or trying to find some more specific textsin your university library.
I feel that the mathematicsin this book is too advanced. Many of my undergraduate colleagues struggled to understand the derivations & justifications, for example. But I suppose this depends entirely on your mathematical background; I came to university with A-level Pure Maths & had few problems. Those who had only AS Pure (or A-level Pure/Applied) seemed to find the material far more challenging.
In the book's defense, the topics on quantum theory are far more rigorous & thorough than most of the other material covered. If you are on an undergrad chemistry degree you probably won't do that much quantum mechanics though, so (as stated above) you may want to just find a dedicated bookin the library.
There are some very clear colour diagramsin this book which can help to augment the text on a few topics (again, particularly the chapters on QM). I found the practice exercises fairly useless as they were, generally, more advanced than anything coveredin my lecture courses. (This will, of course, depend on what is covered at your university.)
By the way, don't buy the solutions manual. Complete waste of money which doesn't come close to explaining clearly what's going on.
Concluding, it's difficult to either encourage or dissuade anyone from buying this. Wait until you get a little way into your course & have a flick through itin the library. If it looks like your physical lectures & problem questions are basically being copied from it (apparently quite common...), then by all means take the plunge & buy it. Just give it some thought & don't buy it without reading it first.
It's simple - By: , 08 Nov 2003 I totally agree with the review givig by another reader!
Most people find Physical chemistry quite tough. Although I don't promise this book will solve all their problems, but it aint a bad start!
But this book is simply the defacto undergraduate textin Physical chemistry.
Pretty much everythingin one book!
During my time as a student, almost all the lecturers follow the content coveredin the Atkins book.
Provides all the information & goes as far as including the mathematical derviations of the all principlesin the book.
If you are serious about physical chemistry, you have to buy this book! Don't waste your money on his inorganic chemistry book, but I think this book is a must & will last the whole duration of a 4 year european chemistry degree course.
