Continued Linear Growth of Organic Chemistry Textbooks

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 18 (2013) pp 273-274
DOI 10.1007/s00897132513

Continued Linear Growth of Organic Chemistry Textbooks

Steven C. Farmer

Department of Chemistry, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA 94928, farmers@sonoma.edu
Received August 1, 2013. Accepted September 24, 2013.

Published: 18 October 2013

Abstract. It has been previously shown that the number of pages in organic chemistry textbooks has increased linearly up to the 1980’s. This manuscript shows that the number of text pages in organic chemistry textbooks has, in fact, leveled off at roughly 1200 pages starting in the 1980’s. Instead, the volume of organic chemistry textbooks has grown linearly at a rate of 23 cm³/year from 1909 to 2012. The probable causes and effects of continually increasing textbooks sizes are discussed herein.

Key Words: Of Special Interest; organic chemistry; second-year undergraduate/general; textbooks; reference books

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: farmers@sonoma.edu )

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Supporting Materials:

A graph showing the relationship between the number of text pages in organic chemistry (88 KB).