Posted inPhysical Chemistry
How is ammonia liquefied?
Compressing ammonia gas under high pressure forces the molecules into close We sometimes call a…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution of energies
If no heat was distributed, then our faces and those parts closest to the fire…
Posted inPhysical Chemistry
Motion of particles in the gas phase
The question, ‘What is pressure?’ is another odd question, but is not too difficult to…
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’…