Talk:Theoretical chemistry
Still way too complex
changeBarras asked me on my Talk page. This is not simple. It isn't written clearly. It needs better organization and extra material can be removed.
This is still complex and suffers from some of the same problems as Molecular formula and Talk:Stereochemistry.
1. See the opening sentence "Theoretical chemistry is about theories to explain chemical observations." Using the same words "theory" and "chemistry" to define the term adds no meaning--none. Think "Grootical phatistry is about groots to explain phatistical observations." Many of these articles have the same problem. If the first sentence or two is not simple and cannot explain the topic even a little bit, then it fails to be simple.
2. Multiple definitions wandering around. Is it:
- * "Theoretical chemistry uses physics to explain or predict chemical observations."
- * A list of components? "Quantum chemistry ... Other major components include molecular dynamics, statistical thermodynamics and theories of electrolyte solutions, reaction networks, polymerization and catalysis."
3. Infrequent vocabulary includes, but is not limited to: "overview, dynamics, electrons, physicist, combinatorial, pathway, density, hence, bulk, discipline(s), phenomena, vague, via". Some of those may appear simple to readers of European languages who have many related words, but not to readers of Asian and other languages. And, that is pretty much aside from the chemical terminology.
4. Many, many phrases that are not simple where one or two words would do. "the application of" "major components" "may be broadly divided" "in the process of" "From the earliest day of" "was rather crude and speculative" "Currently" "without necessarily" "Hence???" There are more.
5. Many errors or unclear sentences. Copyedit these for a start:
- "Theoretical chemists use more recent maths developments to the basic areas of study."
- "For example, they try to use principles of topology to the study of electronic structure."
- "associated to"
- "Historically, the major field of application of theoretical chemistry has been in the following fields of research"
- "Hence, the theoretical chemistry discipline is sometimes seen as a branch of those fields of research." A single branch of multiple fields?
None of these concerns are about polysyllabic words or chemistry jargon. (Although, I feel there are many problems there too.) The writing is not clear. The English is not simple. Writing chemistry accurately is hard enough. Trying to write it simply takes real genius. I doubt any of these can be adequately simplified and retain their meaning. If they could, somebody here on Simple should be making a killing in the textbook market. Because people have been trying to do it for decades. Gotanda (talk) 02:42, 19 August 2011 (UTC)