Abstract
An atom is the smallest unchangeable component of a chemical element. Unchangeable means in this case by chemical means; i.e., by reactions with acids or bases or the effect of moderate temperatures, atoms may only be slightly changed, namely, in their degree of ionisation. Moderate temperatures refers here to temperatures whose equivalent energy kT (k is Boltzmann’s constant, T the temperature in K) is not larger than a few electron volts (eV) (see Table 8.1).
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Literature
S. G. Brush: Statistical Physics and the Theory of Atomic Spectra (Princeton University Press, Princeton 1983)
J. W. Gibbs: Statistical Mechanics (Oxbow Press, Woodbridge 1981)
J. P. Holman: Thermodynamics, 3rd Ed. (McGraw-Hill, New York 1980)
Sir J. Jeans: Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1982)
C. Kittel, H. Kroemer: Thermal Physics (Freeman, San Francisco 1980)
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© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Haken, H., Wolf, H.C. (1987). The Mass and Size of the Atom. In: Atomic and Quantum Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-97014-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-97014-6_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-17702-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-97014-6
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