Scientific American Supplement, No. 460, October 25, 1884 by Various
page 81 of 132 (61%)
page 81 of 132 (61%)
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foundation of the kinetic theory of gases, and which, as we have seen
before, may as well be due to attraction as to repulsion, so far as we know from any investigation hitherto made in this theory. [Footnote 1: According to this view, there is no precise distance, or definite condition respecting the distance, between two molecules, at which apparently they come to be in collision, or when receding from one another they cease to be in collision. It is convenient, however, in the kinetic theory of gases, to adopt arbitrarily a precise definition of collision, according to which two bodies or particles mutually acting at a distance may be said to be in collision when their mutual action exceeds some definite arbitrarily assigned limit, as, for example, when the radius of curvature of the path of either body is less than a stated fraction (one one-hundredth, for instance) of the distance between them.] There remains, however, as we have seen before, the difficulty of providing for the case of actual impacts between the solids, which must be done by giving them massless spring buffers or, which amounts to the same thing, attributing to them repulsive forces sufficiently powerful at very short distances to absolutely prevent impacts between solid and solid; unless we adopt the equally repugnant idea of infinitely small perforated solids, with infinitely great fluid circulations through them. Were it not for this fundamental difficulty, the hydro-kinetic model gas would be exceedingly interesting; and, though we could scarcely adopt it as conceivably a true representation of what gases really are, it might still have some importance as a model configuration of solid and liquid matter, by which without elasticity the elasticity of true gas might be represented. But lastly, since the hydro-kinetic model gas with perforated solids and fluid circulations through them fails because of the impacts between the |
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