Concerning the Nature of Things

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Harper & Brothers, 1925 - 249 páginas
 

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Página 16 - what is the cause of fluidness? This I conceive to be nothing else but a certain pulse or shake of heat ; for, heat being nothing else but a very brisk and vehement agitation of the parts of a body (as I have elsewhere made probable), the parts of a body are thereby made so loose from one another that they easily move any way and become fluid. That I may explain this a little by a gross similitude, let us suppose a dish of sand set upon some body that is very much agitated and shaken with some quick...
Página 49 - We have to go a step further, and see how, at very slow speeds of approach, they may actually stick together. We have all seen those swinging gates which, when their swing is considerable, go to and fro without locking. When the swing has declined, however, the latch suddenly drops into its place, the gate is held and after a short rattle the motion is all over. We have to explain an effect something like that. When the two atoms meet, the repulsions of their electron shells usually cause them to...
Página 2 - Lucretius, if subdivision were carried out sufficiently, one would come at last to the individual corpuscles or atoms : the word atom being taken in its original sense, something which cannot be cut. There is a mighty difference between the two views. On the one, there is nothing to be gained by looking into the structure of substances more closely, for however far we go we come to nothing new. On the other view, the nature of things as we know them will depend on the properties of these atoms of...
Página 16 - ... round upon the under stone very violently whilst it is empty; or on a very stiff drum-head, which is vehemently or very nimbly beaten with the drumsticks. By this means the sand in the dish, which before lay like a dull and unactive body, becomes a perfect fluid; and ye can no sooner make a hole in it with your finger, but it is immediately filled up again, and the upper surface of it levelled.
Página 14 - ... satisfied. The whole of chemistry is concerned with the nature of these conditions and their results. The atoms seem to cling to one another in some such way as two magnets do when opposite poles are presented to each other; or two charges of electricity of opposite nature. In fact, there is no doubt that both magnetic and electric attractions are at work. We are not entirely ignorant of their mode of action, but we know much more about the rules of combination — that is to say, about the facts...
Página 17 - ... twere) sinks to the bottom. Nor can ye make a hole in the side of the dish, but the sand shall run out of it to a level. Not an obvious property of a fluid body, as such, but this does imitate; and all this merely caused by the vehement agitation of the...
Página 14 - ... entirely ignorant of their mode of action, but we know much more about the rules of combination - that is to say, about the facts of chemistry - than we do about the details of the attractions. However, we need not trouble ourselves about these matters for the present; we have merely to realise that there are forces drawing atoms together. We may now ask why, if there are such forces, the atoms do not all join together into one solid mass? Why are there any gases or even liquids? How is it that...
Página 3 - Nature. Lucretius had no conception, however, of atomic theories as they stand now. He did not realise that the atoms can be divided into so many different kinds, and that all the atoms of one kind are alike. That idea is comparatively new: it was explained with great clearness by John Dalton at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It has rendered possible the great advances that chemistry has made in modern times and all the other sciences which depend on chemistry in any degree. It is easy...
Página 2 - On the other view, the nature of things as we know them will depend on the properties of these atoms of which they are composed, and it will be very interesting and important to find out, if we can, what the atoms are like. The latter view turns out to be far nearer the truth than the former; and for that all may be grateful who love to inquire into the ways of Nature. Lucretius had no conception, however, of atomic theories as they stand now. He did not realize that the atoms can be divided into...
Página 14 - However, we need not trouble ourselves about these matters for the present ; we have merely to realize that there are forces drawing atoms together. We may now ask why, if there are such forces, the atoms do not all join together into one solid mass? Why are there any gases or even liquids? How is it that there are any atoms at all which do not link up with their neighbors ? What prevents the earth from falling into the sun and the final solidification of the entire universe? The earth does not fall...

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