Open AccessThe reflection of vapour molecules at a liquid surface
Publication year - 1931
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical and physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9150
pISSN - 0950-1207
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1931.0072
Subject(s) - molecule , evaporation , vapor pressure , kinetic energy , chemistry , thermodynamics , reflection (computer programming) , kinetic theory , mercury (programming language) , analytical chemistry (journal) , organic chemistry , physics , classical mechanics , computer science , programming language
The rate of evaporation of a liquid may be calculated from the kinetic theory of gases if it be assumed that all vapour molecules which strike the surface enter the liquid and that, as a first approximation, the vapour behaves as a perfect gas. Under these circumstances, it follows from the kinetic theory of gases thatm = mass of molecules leaving unit area per minute = mass of molecules striking unit area per minute from the saturated vapour = 14·63 Ps /√Ts gram/sq. cm. /min., where Ps is the saturated vapour pressure in millimetres of mercury at the surface temperature Ts ° A.