Abstract
I REMEMBER that in the discussion of eighteen years ago it was understood that you could get 1˙4 for the ratio, if the molecules had each five degrees of freedom only—if they were, for instance, perfectly smooth, elastic spheroids. Probably the ultimate source of our knowledge in this respect was Boltzmann's paper, to which Mr. Bryan refers us. The difficulty at the time seemed to be mainly one of faith. One could not believe that the molecules were solid elastic bodies, however useful the discussion of such bodies might be in defining a limiting case. As the white posts along a road are put to show you where you should not go, not where you should go. It was further supposed, perhaps without sufficient reason, that the phenomena, of the spectroscope required us to attribute many degrees of freedom to the molecules.
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BURBURY, S. The Ratio of the Specific Heats of Gases. Nature 51, 127 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/051127c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051127c0
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