Schaum's Outline of Thermodynamics With Chemical Applications (Schaum's Outline Series)

Outline exactly what I was expecting.

This book is great for supplemental problems. We use the Smith, Van Ness, Abbott for our course and, since this is by Van Ness and Abbott, it follows along well giving additional problems with solutions. Highly recommend all the Schaums Series for anyone needing quick reference guides.

What I expected

A great way to refresh your knowledge of a fascinating subject

Product is fine but I dislike you asking for reviews.So sorry.

This is the best book you can buy, if you want to LEARN classical thermodynamics, the principles and how to apply them. Here are the highlights:(1) All basic concepts are finely presented and explained. The discussion is complete, thorough and concise.(2) Topics covered make up a complete presentation of thermodynamics for chemical engineers, mechanical engineers and chemists. For physicists the material may be too extensive and the applications too many. A statistical-mechanical version of thermodynamics would be more appropriate for them.(3) All aspects of the theory are demonstrated with examples and applied to real engineering situations.(4) It is given much effort to teach you (a) understand fundamental thermodynamic concepts and (b) how to solve real world problems.In summary, it is a fine book, highly recommended for students, engineers and scientists mentioned in (2).

The Schaum Outline Series has stood the test of time and Thermodynamics by Abbott and Van Ness is no exception. If you want to learn thermo beyond the typical undergraduate level, progressively working through the problems chapter-by-chapter in this book will do the trick.Although this book does follow the old sign convention for work (positive when the system does work on the environment), it properly follows the specific energy convention of "energy/mass". Thus, the ideal gas equation is PV = RT, where V has units of "volume/mass". Once this simple terminology is understood, steam tables can be readily used without confusion.

Frankly, I cannot understand what the purpose of this book really is. It's certainly not a book on general or theoretical thermodynamics. If it is a textbook designed to guide the undergraduate student to understand thermodynamics, it fails. It is just not detailed enough to make the subject clear to a student. The short discussion of the theory is just that: short. Do not be mislead that you will read a few pages and understand a subject which needed centuries to be developed and still is confusing to many scientists. The problems are just not enough for an undergraduate student who wants to be good in solving problems. I had bought this book when I was a student and openned it only a few times to study. The experience was frustrating. I haven't reffered to it for years and never again will. A far better book for the undergraduate is Cengel and Boles thermodynamics.

This is a great resource for understanding the basic concepts and practicing problems. I few topics I wanted to see were not there however.

good