Page 6 - Physical chemistry understanding our chemical world

Contents

Preface xv

Etymological introduction xix

List of symbols xxiii

Powers of ten: standard prefixes xxviii

1 Introduction to physical chemistry 1
1.1 What is physical chemistry: variables, relationships and laws 1
Why do we warm ourselves by a radiator? 1
Why does water get hot in a kettle? 2
Are these two colours complementary? 2
Does my radio get louder if I vary the volume control? 3
Why does the mercury in a barometer go up when the air pressure
increases? 5
Why does a radiator feel hot to the touch when ‘on’, and cold when ‘off’? 7
1.2 The practice of thermodynamic measurement 9
What is temperature? 9
How long is a piece of string? 14
How fast is ‘greased lightning’? 15
Why is the SI unit of mass the kilogram? 17
Why is ‘the material of action so variable’? 18
1.3 Properties of gases and the gas laws 20
Why do we see eddy patterns above a radiator? 20
Why does a hot-air balloon float? 20
How was the absolute zero of temperature determined? 21
Why pressurize the contents of a gas canister? 23
Why does thunder accompany lightning? 25
How does a bubble-jet printer work? 26