The following is a preliminary account of experiments made in an attempt to obtain information about the relation between the energy of a positive ion and the effect produced on a surface which it bombards. The energy relations which hold in collisions between rapidly moving positive ions and the molecules of a gas or of a solid are of extreme importance in the theory of gaseous discharges at low pressures, in particular of the initiation of the self-sustained discharge.

A simple explanation of Pauli's principle was first given with the wave mechanics. Its interpretation in the new theory was that the wave functions of Schrödinger were antisymmetrical in all the electrons concerned. Thus when the interactions of the electrons may be neglected, the wave function (for a system of n electrons) can never be of the form

in nature, but only of the form

Hence σ, τ,…ω must be all distinct.

1. In his book, A Theory of Time and Space, the writer showed that, contrary to the generally accepted view, the ideas of Congruence can be built up from purely ordinal considerations, provided that we do not confine ourselves to linear order, but admit what, for convenience, he has called Conical Order. This Conical Order is built up from the purely abstract asymmetrical relations of before and after and does not pre-suppose the existence of the cones which are used to illustrate it.

If a bar is vibrating under water it will set up circulating currents which possess kinetic energy and so in effect add to its inertia: consequently the frequency under water will be less than the frequency in air. The effect of the water is precisely the same as if the density of the bar had been increased: the apparent increase of mass is usually called the “added mass” of the bar and the total apparent mass the “virtual mass”, and these terms will be used subsequently.

In two recent papers the writer has given an account of a practical method of finding the characteristic values and functions of Schrödinger's wave equations for a given non-Coulomb central field. For terms of optical spectra the method is effectively the following. We take the wave equation in the form

and require the values of ɛ for the solutions which are zero at the origin and at r = ∞. We consider the result of integrating this equation outwards from P = 0 at r = 0 to a radius r0 at which the deviation from a Coulomb field is negligible, and inwards from P = 0 at r = ∞ to the same radius, with a given value of ɛ; the characteristic values are those values for which these two solutions join smoothly on to one another, i.e. for which they have the same value of η = −P′/P at this radius. For a given ɛ, the solution zero at the origin depends on the particular atom; the solution zero at infinity can be expressed in a form independent of any particular atom.

The electron theory of metals revived by Sommerfeld assumes that an electron moves in a metal as though this were an equipotential medium. Considering the nuclei fixed and regularly spaced we obtain a potential periodic in space coordinates. To study the effect of such fields we may simplify the problem so as to contain only one periodic term for each coordinate in its expression for potential. This problem can be reduced further to a one-dimensional one, of which the simplest example is the motion of an electron in a field with potential cos x or sin x. Darwin has shown that a suitable combination or packet of elementary de Broglie waves is capable of moving coherently in several instances. The motion of such a packet is found to be equivalent to that of a particle in classical dynamics with the Heissenberg uncertainty relation. The wave packet is used here for the motion of the electron in a periodic field. The result obtained is equivalent to that of classical dynamics. The wave packet again moves as a particle with an uncertainty relation.

In various communications published in the Journal of the Chemical Society the author has discussed the effect of different nuclei on the absorption spectra of various compounds. The problem has been further investigated with a number of substances derived from aniline, o-and m-cresols, and α-and β-naphthylamines, and this communication is to give an account of the results. A condensed Cd-spark was used as the source of radiant energy, and alcoholic solutions of the substances were examined in the usual way.

To the conditions of reaction in homogeneous systems is added yet another condition, the adsorption of the reactants on the centres of activity of the surface. The surface is treated as if it were homogeneous, reaction taking place as if those centres on which the heat of activation is smallest were alone responsible for chemical change.

The general equation is worked out in terms of the rate of bombardment, and the mean lives of the molecules on the surface. It is incidentally shown that the same areas associated with the forward reaction must inevitablycatalyse the backward reaction.

The general solution is impracticable, so the special cases of irreversible synthesis and decomposition are considered and results are obtained.

Duane's quantum theory of diffraction is applied to the reflexion of electrons by crystals and to the spatial distribution of photoelectrons and fluorescent radiation from a crystal.

Two alternative criteria for coherence are given. According to the second of these there is coherence provided that the momentum imparted to the components of a system during the process concerned is insufficient, owing to quantum restrictions to their motion, to change their energy. Calculations made on this supposition show that in the case of the scattering of radiation by a crystal there is complete coherence for the lower orders, while for higher orders this ceases to be the case and the reflected intensity is reduced as the result of incoherent scattering. The specular reflexion by gases is also considered.

Duane's theory of diffraction has not been placed on a rigorous basis and the solutions which have been proposed here for various problems may be incorrect. Even so the theory has at least served to bring to light several points of theoretical and experimental interest which deserve consideration.

A very great deal has been published upon the subject of the electrical counter and its mode of action. Most explanations are incomplete in that they neglect some of the factors involved. The question of the self-restoring property of the system has also received attention, but this property has not been properly related to the general problem of intermittency in discharge tubes.

In a recent paper in these Proceedings the writer suggested the possibility of a transition from one molecular form to another in CO2. The suggestion is embodied in the equation (10) and the resulting specific heats for low temperatures given. He greatly regrets that it was not till after those results were published that he found they gave a high and altogether impossible maximum in the specific heat curve for higher temperatures before it returns to the neighbourhood of the unmodified curve Cv′.

Wilson's cloud method, provides a means of measuring the ranges of β-rays which is free from any uncertainties arising from the scattering of the rays, and for this reason it is an invaluable method for obtaining the true rate of loss of energy of β-rays as they traverse matter. Thetrue rate of loss of energy or ‘stopping power’ is defined as the quantity , where is the mean energy lost by β-rays of energy T in travelling a distance dx measured along their paths. The cloud method of course enables one to observe only the total ranges of β-particles, and in deducing the stopping power from the mean range it is necessary to bear in mind that owing to ‘straggling,’ which in the case of β-rays is large, the differential coefficient , where is the mean range of particles of energy T, is not exactly the same as the stopping power . is however the quantity which the cloud method enables us to observe. It is the purpose of this note to consider the exact relation between these two quantities so that the information provided by the cloud method may be rigorously interpreted.

The lemma I propose to discuss may be stated as follows;

If ξ, η, ζ are three quantities whose sum is zero and λ, μ, ν three positive integers (≤n) satisfying the condition

then any polynomial of order n in ξ, η, ζ can be expressed in the form

where P, Q, R are polynomials of orders n − λ, n − μ, n − ν.

Gyroscopic effects furnish important instances of dynamical actions, but their general discussion is outside the range of most students reading for Part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos. If, however, we limit ourselves to the case in which the axis of the wheel makes a constant angle with the vertical, the theory becomes elementary and simple devices suffice for recording the movements of the revolving wheel. The recording gyroscope was designed to give students at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, an opportunity of making practical measurements to verify the theoretical results.

The great increase in the speed of chemical change at the surfaces of specific substances has always been one of the most mysterious of all chemical phenomena, and the collection of evidence which will throw light on the nature of the process is research which lies at the foundation of chemical science, because it concerns the ultimate nature of chemical combination and dissociation.

The absorption curves and the photo-ionisation experiments agree to give a value for the molecular photo-electric threshold of λ 2555 ± 20 a.u. If our view of the ionisation process is correct, the energy of dissociation is 0·505 ∓ ·01 volts. If the picture of the ionisation process is wrong, the energy of dissociation may be a little lower (a few hundredths of a volt). The corresponding heat of dissociation is 11400 calories. In the range of temperature (200° C. to 500° C.) generally used in experiments on potassium vapour, the fraction associated varies from 10−4 to 10−2. An equation for calculating the fraction associated at any temperature is given by the writer in an earlier paper.

The limiting distribution, when n is large, of the greatest or least of a sample of n, must satisfy a functional equation which limits its form to one of two main types. Of these one has, apart from size and position, a single parameter h, while the other is the limit to which it tends when h tends to zero.

The appropriate limiting distribution in any case may be found from the manner in which the probability of exceeding any value x tends to zero as x is increased. For the normal distribution the limiting distribution has h = 0.

From the normal distribution the limiting distribution is approached with extreme slowness; the final series of forms passed through as the ultimate form is approached may be represented by the series of limiting distributions in which h tends to zero in a definite manner as n increases to infinity.

Numerical values are given for the comparison of the actual with the penultimate distributions for samples of 60 to 1000, and of the penultimate with the ultimate distributions for larger samples.