Product Description

This edition acts as an introductory text, simultaneously demonstrating the underlying principles and applicability of thermodynamics to the behaviour of non-metallic materials and to the transformation of metallurgy materials. Normal derivations of thermodynamic equations, whenever possible, are accompanied by derivations which illustrate the thermodynamics of the situation. The order in which material is presented is such that the text maintains a continuity of the development and the use of the principles. In addition, worked examples which illustrate the application of thermodynamics to the consideration of the behavior of materials systems are included.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1281552 in Books
• Published on: 1995-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Library Binding
• 568 pages

Review
"The long life of this textbook is as good an evaluation of its quality as any book reviewer’s praise. " -- MRS Bulletin, December 2004

'This is an excellent book...it's really what a 'standard' textbook should be: it is detailed, and complete, but builds up from the basics rather than jumping straight in to advanced concepts...I like the iclusion of questions, most importantly, with solutions, and the worked examples are also a valuable resource. Plenty of diagrams for explanations, all clearly referenced and sensibly placed; and there are useful appendices and references.'. Dr. Zoe Barber, Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, UK..
LIBRARY
T...he long life of this textbook is as good an evaluation of its quality as any book reviewer's praise. ...It will remain as a classic for times to come..
-- MRS Bulletin

About the Author
David R. Gaskell received a B.Sc. in Metallurgy and Technical Chemistry from the University of Glasgow and a Ph.D. from McMaster University. He joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1967 and later moved to Purdue University, where he is currently a Professor of Materials Engineering.

Customer Reviews

Materials Science & Metallurgical student from Michigan Tech
Thermodynamics is already a hard enough subject to learn. If you want to learn thermo this is the wrong book for you. Gaskell confused my whole class so much that we hardly even used this book, fortanetly we had a good professor that was able to make sense of what Gaskell had to say. There are so many errors in this book that it is pathetic not just in the answers but also in the tables that Gaskell provides. Gaskell himself came and lectured our class this term. Luckly for him it was early in the term when we were just starting to use the book, if he had came in later in the term he would have been beaten senseless with this horrible book.

Could be worse... could be better
This is not a good book. It's full of errors.

Of course, the other thermo books out there (DeHoff, Lupis, Swalin) are much worse. At least Gaskell's explainations make a little sense.

Read this book for the concepts; read another when you want accurate equations, graphs and tables.

A good book of chemical thermodynamics...believe it or not!
To the curious minds of today and tomorrow:

While it seems most of the reviews on Gaskell's book are not very favorable I beg to differ. As someone with considerable expertise in thermodynamics, I can say that Gaskell succeeds in discussing quite a few very important points rather well.

The treatment of solid-gas reactions, solution thermodynamics and phase diagrams are very thorough. There are plenty of examples by which the use of the principles can be mastered. In most books you will not find such a detailed presentation. The formulation of free energy formalism is well developed.

The weakness of the book lies in the first couple of chapters where Gaskell is discussing the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Those chapters might have been better written. And I suggest Callen's book for a first reading of the first and second laws.

As my thermodynamics professor used to say "If you think you understand thermodynamics on the very first exposure, then you either didn't understand a single thing or you're a genius." In retrospect, he was right.

Learning thermodynamics takes a lot a patience, unlike less abstract topics such as classical mechanics, for instance. Hence, be patient and read your texts carefully. As you progress through your studies, you will soon discover that Gaskell's book is a much better book than it appears on the first reading.

Cheers,

Dr. E.
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