[.ca] Quantitative Chemical Analysis (ISBN 0716776944)

The new analytical standard.:
This book has become the new standard for both quantatitive and instrumental analysis courses. Goodby, Skoog! The textbook (in different editions) has been used for our Quantatitive Analysis course for several years, with excellent results. I am currently adopting it for my Instrumental Methods of Analysis course. Although I will need to suppliment some material (FTNMR is not covered, for example), the main important instrumental techniques ARE covered very well - straight and to the point! As for the prior poor reviews, well the problem seems to me to be in the student, not the textbook!

The best Analytical Chemistry Textbook!:
When I was an undergraduate student, the reference text was Chimie Analytique Generale by Gaston Charlot (which is quite an antique, completely unexplained, but problems are OK). But when I really needed a clearly explanation, no other book could match Harris. It's clear, yet fully explained, and it's miles better than any Quantitative Chemical Analysis book (e.g. Skoog, Christian, among many others). It covers not only "classic techniques, e.g. titrimetric techniques acid-base equilibria, gravimetric methods, titrimetric analysis by complex with EDTA, among others, but it can also be adapted to Instrumental Methods courses (but, at some point, some additional material must be supplemented).Thanks to that book, I happened to learn quite a lot, and I used it for 4 semesters in Analytical Chemistry. If you don't like this one, you probably won't like any other Quantitative Chemical Analysis textbook. Now that I'm a practicing chemist, I'm still amazed that this book has never abandoned my desk because is an excellent reference work. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Analytical Chemistry.

The Defintive Book for Analytical Chemistry:
This book is the definitive guide for anyone who is taking a course in Analytical Chemistry or just wants to learn about Analytical Chemistry. The language and examples are straight-forward and very easy to understand and format is easy and progressive without being intimidating to anyone who may find chemistry to be a difficult subject to understand.

Excellent analytical chemistry book:
One of the best written textbooks in any area of chemistry. Here is a measure of the quality of this book. When I was graduate school, most of our research group owned a copy of Harris and we kept it on our shelves for handy reference. We had all purchased it as undergraduates but kept it because we LIKED it and found it so darn useful. It is an excellent general reference for anybody whose work involves chemical analysis. The tables of acid dissociation constants and redox half-potentials are some of the most extensive you will find any textbook. When I first started teaching, I used Skoog & West on the basis of my predecessor's recommendation. However, during my first semester, I found myself constantly referring to Harris because of its clear explainations and good examples. In the second semester, I conducted a head-to-head competition with students reading a chapter on the same material from both Harris and from Skoog. The overwhelming student preference was for Harris and I have used it in my classes ever since. Readers who don't like Harris aren't going to be happy with any analytical chemistry textbook.

An acceptable book:
I don't particularly enjoy chemistry; but at least the author attempts to throw some random humor throughout the text. The material covered by the book is horrifically boring; (I think) but the occasional jokes make the reading marginally more bearable. It's one of the better Chemistry textbooks I've read due to the less serious tone of the author.