Calculations exploring the nature and extent of the inductive effect in organic chemistry

The inductive effect is a foundational concept in chemistry relating to the way charge is transmitted within a molecule as a result of substituents. We find that the description of the inductive effect in textbooks is sometimes incorrect and a more refined version is necessary. The data herein demonstrates this.
The dataset is organised in the following way:
Calculations on 1-substituted pentanes. These show that the effect of substituents (halogens, etc.) are not transmitted along the carbon chain in the way commonly described in textbooks. Various methods of charge analysis have been used, and all lead to the same conclusions.
Calculations on a small number of aromatic compounds confirm this to be the case here as well.
For carboxylic acids, the calculations show that we should only consider the charge redistribution in the carboxylate anion, and these data do not follow the expected electronegativity trends. In particular, the effects are greater for Cl than for F, which shows that polarizability is more important than electronegativity.
The field effect is an importance concept in structural/physical organic chemistry. The dataset contains a number of examples in which the field effect can be presented as a through-orbital polarization effect (which is inherently directional) rather than the commonly stated through-space effect. On this basis, the field effect should not be considered to be a distinct effect.
To support the calculations on polarizability, a series of calculations on 1-fluoropentane is included, with a computationally applied charge. These data confirm that the effect is not transmitted through the bonds in a decreasing sense (as is commonly taught) but can again best be represented as a broader polarization of molecular orbitals.