This is now the third edition of a well established and highly successful undergraduate text. The content of the second edition has been reworked and added to where necessary, and completely new material has also been included. There are new sections on amorphous solids and liquid crystals, and completely new chapters on colloids and polymers. Using unsophisticated mathematics and simple models, Professor Tabor leads the reader skilfully and systematically from the basic physics of interatomic and intermolecular forces, temperature, heat and thermodynamics, to a coherent understanding of the bulk properties of gases, liquids and solids. The introductory material on intermolecular forces and on heat and thermodynamics is followed by several chapters dealing with the properties of ideal and real gases, both at an elementary and at a more sophisticated level. The mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of solids are considered next, before an examination of the liquid state. The aut