![]() In fact, this assumption enabled physicists to deduce that the temperature of a gas is related to the average kinetic energy of the molecules within it, a concept we will return to shortly. This enabled him to calculate the force a molecule would exert when traveling at a particular speed, something difficult to measure, and relate that to the pressure, something easily measured. This was expanded on by the Austrian high school teacher Josef Loschmidt (1821–1895) who, in 1865, combined Avogadro’s conclusion with the assumption that atoms and molecules move very much as elastic objects, think billiard balls. In 1811 he proposed that, under conditions of equal temperature and pressure, equal volumes of gases contained equal numbers of particles (molecules) and that the densities of the gases, that is their weight divided by their volume, were proportional to the weight of the individual molecules. The first step, along this direction, was made by Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856). More evidence began to accumulate, more elements were discovered, and it even became possible to calculate the number of atoms in a particular sample. By 1900 the atomic theory was almost universally accepted by chemists. Neils Bohr (1865–1962)ĭalton’s theory of atoms as indivisible, indestructible, objects of different sizes, weights, and perhaps shapes, depending on the element, held up for almost 100 years, although there was considerable dissent about whether atoms really existed, particularly among philosophers. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. ![]() The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.
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