Ebook A Kinetic Theory of Gases and Liquids

The object of writing this book is to formulate a Kinetic Theory of certain properties of matter, which shall apply equally well to matter in any state. The desirability of such a development need not be emphasized. The difficulty hitherto experienced in applying the results obtained in the case of the Kinetic Theory of Gases in the well-known form to liquids and intermediary states of matter has been primarily due to the difficulty of properly interpreting molecular interaction. In the case of gases this difficulty is in most part overcome by the introduction of the assumption that a molecule consists of a perfectly elastic sphere not surrounded by any field of force. But since such a state of affairs does not exist, the results obtained in the case of gases hold only in a general way, and the numerical constants involved are therefore of an indefinite nature, while in the case of dense gases and liquids this procedure does not lead to anything that is of use in explaining the facts.

Instead of an atom, or molecule, consisting of a perfectly elastic sphere, it is more likely that each may be regarded simply as a center of forces of attraction and Repulsion. If the exact nature of the field of force surrounding atoms and molecules were known, it would be a definite mathematical problem to determine the resulting properties of matter. But our knowledge in this connection is at present not sufficiently extensive to permit a development of the subject along these lines.