Abstract
IN a letter to NATURE of July 22 (p. 645) Dr. Ashworth discusses the atomic diamagnetism of liquid and gaseous hydrogen on the hypothesis that diamagnetism originates from rotations or oscillations of the paramagnetic atom or molecule. He ignores, however, the case of atomic hydrogen in normally saturated hydrocarbons given in my letter of July 8 (p. 581). The atomic susceptibility of hydrogen in these compounds is constant anti equal to -30.5 × 10-7 at room-temperature. Onnes and Perrier (Proc. Amsterdam Acad., vol. xiv., p. 115, 1911) have shown that the specific susceptibility of liquid hydrogen is -27 × 10-7, with a probable error of 10 per cent., so that there is little difference between this value for hydrogen at a temperature less than -253° C. and that derived from the hydrocarbons at room-temperature. According to the kinetic hypothesis of Dr. Ashworth, the paramagnetic atom will appear diamagnetic only if its oscillations exceed 130° on either side of the position of rest, and oscillations of this nature (or complete rotations) must be common to all the hydrogen atoms in any normally saturated compound. This, I think, Dr. Ashworth will scarcely admit is plausible.
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OXLEY, A. The Diamagnetism of Hydrogen. Nature 105, 709 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105709b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105709b0
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