Maths for chemists, volumes 1 and 2
Martin R. Cockett and Graham Doggett
Cambridge: RSC 2003 | Pp189; 143 | £14.95 each | ISBN0 854 04677 1; 0 854 04495 7
Reviewed by Paul Yates
Recent articles published in Education in Chemistry highlight the continued need for textbooks on mathematics written for chemistry undergraduates (see, for example, Educ. Chem., 2004, 41(2), 56). This two-volume addition to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Tutorial chemistry text series is aimed at those undergraduates with GCSE level or equivalent mathematics and attempts to ‘adopt a sympathetic approach to students’.
Accordingly, volume one (subtitled Numbers, functions and calculus) starts with topics such as rounding, BODMAS rules and scientific notation. However, by page 135 the text focuses on the more complicated topic of differential equations so students will find themselves on a steep learning curve. Volume two is subtitled Power series, complex numbers and linear algebra and so is presumably aimed at the later stages of the undergraduate degree and at postgraduates.
An essential feature of any book of this type is the provision of worked examples and problems for students to try. These both appear throughout the text in shaded boxes. The answers at the end of each book are more extensive than the common single number or expression provided in maths textbooks, and give students valuable guidance when they have made a mistake. I would like to have seen more worked examples, particularly in the early stages of volume one where weaker students may be getting used to thinking in mathematical terms. Several problems use real chemical examples to place the mathematics in context. For example, the kinetics of the catalytic conversion of sucrose to fructose and glucose by the enzyme invertase is used to illustrate the application of limits.
These volumes are a useful addition to the resources available for teaching mathematics to chemists. However, the books will be of most use with more able students and at advanced levels of a university chemistry course.
