Mean Free Paths of Gases

Authors

John A. Eldridge, State University of IowaFollow

Document Type

Research

Abstract

A molecular beam passes through a chamber enclosing gas at low pressure. The emergent beam is measured on a Pirani gauge. The question has been raised whether a collision in the classical sense has any meaning without specification of the angle of scattering considered. As a preliminary experiment it was determined that the molecules suffering very small deviations (less than a degree) were negligible in number. The mean free path of H₂, He, N₂, O₂, molecules have been measured; in each case the values found are smaller (by several fold) than the values determined indirectly from kinetic theory. The difference is probably due to neglect of the persistence of velocity in the kinetic theory.

Publication Date

1932

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

39

Issue

1

First Page

221

Last Page

221

Copyright

©1932 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Eldridge, John A. (1932) "Mean Free Paths of Gases," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 39(1), 221-221.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol39/iss1/63