Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Beware! "Handbook of inorganic chemicals" by Patnaik

AsocialSurvival - 18-10-2014 at 14:00

A large part of this book is simply wrong. I've seen some people use it for Wikipedia reference. If this book is wrong, there's possibility that anything you calculated is wrong, and that wikipedia is wrong. Here's my current finding:

It says that atomic weight of Fluorine is 37.997, while it's on Wikipedia 18.9984031636.

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Texium - 18-10-2014 at 14:02

They're probably actually referring to the mass of diatomic fluorine, as it would float around in gas form.

plante1999 - 18-10-2014 at 14:41

I also noticed many mistakes in this books, nothing major IRRC, though.

[Edited on 18-10-2014 by plante1999]

[Edited on 18-10-2014 by plante1999]

Jameson - 23-10-2014 at 00:04

Even if there's nothing wrong in a major sense with "Handbook of Inorganic Chemicals" those little minor mistakes can grow to a pile. And in such a scientific and detailed field as chemistry, physics, mathematics it's unacceptable. So it's a no-go from me.

smaerd - 25-10-2014 at 04:06

Every book has mistakes in it essentially. Most 'new' books post an errata on the publishers website or something similar. I found more than 10 pretty noteable errors (not talking punctuation here) in the thermodynamics sections of the new Atkins physical chemistry book even (10th ed.). It just happens unfortunately. Inform the author you found an error, might help them along

Oxirane - 25-10-2014 at 07:30

The mass for fluorine is essentially just diatomic. I have always hated it every time any of these are presented and no indication is made wether it is calculated in basis of single atomic element or as a molecular form. Then you've got to balance the equations and calculations just to check it out and find everything's ok so you're not dumping essentially half - or double - the amount required to the reaction.

AsocialSurvival - 27-10-2014 at 23:00

OMG, it says: Titanium Dioxide Mohs hardness is 5.8 g/cm3 (anatase and brookite) and 6.2 g/cm3 (rutile). Hmmm... Those hardnesses are correct without unit. The density is 4.23 g/cm3, so it did not mean densities.

Btw, that for fluorine is wrong, nobody gives weight of diatomic gases. Values for H, O, N and all other gases are correct.