From: glhurst@onr.com (Gerald L. Hurst)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Azotropes, boiling and vapor pressure of mixtures
Date: 28 Dec 1995 00:22:32 GMT

In article <4bpr43$72j@cloner2.ix.netcom.com>, Alan \"Uncle Al\" Schwartz <uncleal0@ix.netcom.com> says:

>The appendices starting on page 615 contain the theory, as would any good 
>undergraduate physical chemistry text (at least before quantum mechanics 
>crowded out conveyance of useful information).

Al, you heretic. I sincerely hope you are not advocating putting
chemistry back in the textbooks. It is true that Quantum Foopah
is about as useful as cold fusion, but it is a lot safer than
actually mixing chemicals. Somebody could get hurt. Besides, like
most true religions, quantum chemistry allows for an infinite variety
of net discussions without the necessity of actually running some
smelly experiment.

You might like to join me in my crusade to rid handbooks of their
last anachronistic vestiges of tables containing potentially
useful information.  Lange's 11th edition got on the right track
when they deleted all conversion factors between non-SI units.
Unfortunately, there was some backsliding in later editions,
undoubtedly because of lobbying by some old farts who do not
know that wet chemistry is dead.

Fortunately, chemistry text books do not need our help. They
haven't taught any chemistry in years.  

Jerry (Ico)