Abstract
IN opening a joint discussion on cohesion and molecular forces between Sections A, B, and G of the British Association at its recent meeting at Liverpool, Sir William Bragg emphasised the change of point of view which the analysis of crystal structure by X-rays has brought about. The older view, in which atoms and molecules were pictured as centres of force exerted in all directions, and governed by some power law of the distance between them, has had some measure of success in explaining the principal features of surface tension and some of the departures from perfection in a gas. But in a solid, except possibly in the case of polar compounds, no satisfactory results have accrued. On the newer view we consider, not the aggregate, but the individual, atom or molecule.
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Cohesion and Molecular Forces. Nature 112, 773–774 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112773a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112773a0