It is unfortunate that physics and chemistry ever were separated. Chemistry is the science of atoms and of the way they combine. Physics deals with the interatomic forces and with the large-scale properties of matter resulting from those forces. So long as chemistry was largely empirical and physics had not learned how to treat small-scale atomic forces, the two sciences seemed widely separated. But with statistical mechanics and the kinetic theory on the one hand, and physical chemistry on the other, the two sciences began to come together. Now that statistical mechanics has led to quantum theory and wave mechanics, there is nothing really separating them anymore. This book is organized around three sections. Part I covers thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory. Part II, Gases, liquids and solids. And Part III covers atoms, molecules, and the structure of matter.
