Post #852110

2026-03-10 14:59 UTC

Interesting view from Peter Atkins at the RSC Historial Group - don&#39;t tell students that there&#39;s a lot of hard maths in chemistry. He argues that there&#39;s not a lot of real mathematics. There are a lot of physical ideas that are underpinned quantitatively. Tell students instead to focus on the ideas, and that the maths is easy and will follow. Lovely account of the growth of PChem in the last 50 years, in part illustrated by acronyms used in his textbooks. Fascinating.

Replies (5)

@oldoldcojote@climatejustice.social 2026-03-10 15:03

@sellathechemist Well put.

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@HGourlayUCL@mastodon.education 2026-03-10 16:07

@sellathechemist Do you think the high school curriculum would do better to focus on concepts? Leave the maths to the maths teachers and programmes, and have chemistry (or in my case physics) teachers focus on the chemistry (or physics)? #chemistryeducation #physicseducation

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@ianRobinson@mastodon.social 2026-03-10 16:48

@sellathechemist Don't show them his Physical Chemistry textbook too early then! 😂

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@titania@retro.pizza 2026-03-10 16:57

@sellathechemist this is what I used to tell students myself! "unless you are planning to do a PhD in pchem, most of the math you will end up using is basic algebra at the most. Don't stress about it." very good to see someone else (with more standing) saying it too. thanks for sharing!

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@egonw@mastodon.social 2026-03-10 17:52

@sellathechemist still have his book(s) at home

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