Posted inPhysical Chemistry
The ideal-gas equation
A bubble-jet printer is one of the more useful and versatile inventions of the last…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
The effects of temperature on density
The air around a hot radiator soon acquires heat. We explain this observation from the…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
‘The material of action so variable’
The classical author Epictetus (ca 50–ca 138 AD) once said, ‘The materials of action are…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
How fast is ‘greased lightning’?
In comic books of the 1950s, one of the favourite phrases of super-heroes such as…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
The SI unit of length
A common problem in Anglo Saxon England, as well as much of contemporary Europe, was…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
The practice of thermodynamic measurement
Although the answer to the simple question ‘what is temperature?’ seems obvious at first sight,…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
Thermal equilibrium and the zeroth law of thermodynamics
A fever is often the first visible sign of someone developing an The word ‘thermometer’…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
Laws and the minus-oneth law of thermodynamics
Feeling the temperature of a radiator is one of the simplest of A ‘law’ in…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
Observed and controlled variables
We want to turn up the radio because it’s noisy outside, and we want to…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
Relationships between variables
The pressure p of the air above any point on the Earth’s surface relates ultimately…