An Introduction To The Kinetic Theory Of Gases (cambridge Science Classics)

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE KINETIC THEORY OF GASES AN INTRODUCTION TO THE KINETIC THEORY OF GASES BY SIR JAMES JEANS CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1967 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www. Cambridge. org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521092326 © Cambridge University Press 1940 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1940 Reprinted 1946, 1948, 1952, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1967 Re-issued in this digitally printed version 2008 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-521-09232-6 paperback PREFACE I have intended that the present book shall provide such knowledge of the Kinetic Theory as is required by the average serious student of physics and physical chemistry. I hope it will also give the mathematical student the equipment he should have before undertaking the study of specialist monographs, such, for instance, as the recent books of Chapman and Cowling (The Mathematical Theory of Non-uniform Oases) and R. H. Fowler (Statistical Thermodynamics). Inevitably the book covers a good deal of the same ground as my earlier book, The Dynamical Theory of Oases, but it is covered in a simpler and more physical manner. Primarily I have kept before me the physicist's need for clearness and directness of treatment rather than the mathematician's need for rigorous general proofs. This does not mean that many subjects will not be found treated in the same way—and often in the same words—in the two books; I have tried to retain all that was of physical interest in the old book, while discarding much of which the interest was mainly mathematical. It is a pleasure to thank Professor E. N. da C. Andrade for reading my proofs, and suggesting many improvements which have greatly enhanced the value of the book. I am also greatly indebted to W. F. Sedgwiek,* sometime of Trinity College, Cambridge, for checking all the numerical calculations in the latest edition of my old book, and suggesting many improvements. J. H. JEANS DORKING June 1940 [* W. F. Sedgwiek writes (1946): "As a rule I only checked one or two of the items in the tables. As regards these and the numerical results given in the text, I did indeed as a rule agree, at least approximately, with Jeans' figures, but in a few cases (see Philosophical Magazine, Sept. 1946, p. 651) my results differed substantially." PUBLISHERS' NOTE.] CONTENTS Chap. I. Introduction II. A Preliminary Survey III. Pressure in a Gas IV. Collisions and Maxwell's Law V. The Free Path in a Gas VI. Viscosity VII. Conduction of Heat VIII. Diffusion 17 51 103 131 156 185 198 IX. General Theory of a Gas not in a Steady State 225 X. General Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics 253 XI. Calorimetry and Molecular Structure App. I. Maxwell's proof of