Physics Series (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ...an opposite effect, namely, it tends to go to the weakest part of the field, its action being analogous to that of a diamagnetic body which suffers repulsion by a magnet. Wrede and Estermann have succeeded in demonstrating the peculiar behavior we have just described, by sending a stream of the molecules under investigation, through a non-homogeneous electric field and observing the effect. A stream of "non-polar" molecules suffered a simple deflection in the direction of increasing field, on account of "deformation," the effect of which is always in the positive sense. In the case of "polar" molecules there is a sidewise deflection in one particular direction upon which, however, is superimposed a broadening towards both sides. The splitting-up of this band into the component streams corresponding to the discrete "levels" of energy promises to be but little instructive and has not yet been done. It is possible, however, to deduce an approximate value for the "dipole-moment" from the amount of the broadening. The temperature method is very suitable for an exact determination of "polarity," but it has the disadvantage that it is difficult to carry out because the values of the dielectric constants of the gases under consideration differ but little from unity. It would be much easier to experiment upon the gases condensed to liquid, but such measurements would throw no light upon the characteristic molecular constants whose values are being sought. In dense liquids the mutual interaction of the molecules is, in fact. so great that the "association-effects" introduce an extraordinary amount of complication which gets worse with increasing strength of the molecular...