Physical Chemistry

Joseph H. Noggle was a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Delaware. He demonstrated a passion for three subjects-opera, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and computers. At the time of his unexpected death on March 13, 1998, he was looking forward to teaching an evening class on the Wagner Ring Cycle at the University of Delaware's Academy of Lifelong Learning. Professor Noggle, who held a master's degree and a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University, first taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, before going to the University of Delaware in 1971. He authored or co-authored a total of 35 research articles, all of which dealt with some aspect of NMR, and wrote the definitive treatice on The Nuclear Overhauser Effect: Chemical Applications. Professor Noggle's love of computers led him to create amd teach the course "Computers in Chemistry," and six of his nine books dealt with applications of computer hardware and software to the teaching of physical chemistry. He served, not surprisingly, as the department's first and only webmaster. Professor Noggle's crowning achievement, however, was "Physical Chemistry," now in its third edition. It has become the second most-used textbook in the country. Recognizing Professor Noggle's quick wit and dry sense of humor, his e-mail by-line quoted humorist Dave Barry: "Megahertz: a really big Hertz."

I've used Noggle ten out of the past twelve years in my junior level physical chemistry course. It is very comprehensive, takes a rigorous theoretical approach, and I think was a leader in using an operator based method for quantum mechanics, as well as chpaters on Stat Mech. Having said all that I am alarmed by the student reviews here. I teach at a small liberal arts college with 5-15 students enrolled in physical chemistry, and I offer a lot of contact time for problem solving assistance. I guess I am hoping that the students who wrote awful reviews took the course at a much larger institution. I noticed that Noggle went to some effort to make the 3rd edition "easier" than the first two editions, so that the problems were a bit less challenging, and in so doing there were quite a few errors in the 3rd edition, as the students pointed out; this is a prime example of how making something easier makes it harder. In any case, I guess I would not recommend the use of this textbook in a large physical chemistry course where students do not have direct access to a knowledgeable professor who is available to them in abundant amounts. But I am going to keep using it, and praising Noggle as I do so for his mathematical approach to the subject of physical chemistry.

This is the best physical chemistry book I have seen. I used it for my undergraduate class at the University of Delaware, where Noggle was my professor. It presents all of the basic thermo concepts (at an easier level than Sandler's text, definitely read Noggle concurrent with Sandler), statistical mechanics, diffusion, kinetics, and quantum mechanics. I still refer to this book regularly. It is an indispensable reference for a chemical engineer.