Level: introductory+
Reference: Lord Rayleigh, "Argon," Royal Institution Proceedings 14, 524-538 (1895).
Notes: Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919, born John William Strutt) was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in physics for his role in the discovery of argon. That discovery resulted from his careful unraveling of an anomaly detected in gas density measurements.
Rayleigh's investigations that led to the discovery of argon began in attempts to measure the density of nitrogen with an eye toward accurate determination of its molar mass. He found small but reproducible discrepancies in the density of samples prepared from nitrogenous compounds and samples prepared from atmospheric air. Part (a) asks the student to quantify the composition of "chemical nitrogen" based on two hypotheses Rayleigh considered and eliminated; part (b) asks the student to quantify the composition of "atmospheric nitrogen" based on the realization that it was really a mixture of nitrogen and argon.
Solutions: To download solutions, go to:
http://web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/classicalcs/rayleigh.doc
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