AbstractsChemistry

"In normal crystalline solids the atoms are at rest in their lattice points at absolute zero of temperature. Increasing the temperature of the crystal increases the motion of the atoms about their lattice points. Approximately, each atom or ion may be treated as a harmonic oscillator. then from the equations of motion of the atoms, by the Born-von Karman theory of specific heats, the normal modes of vibration of the lattice can be expressed as the roots of a secular determinant. Application of this theory to determine the thermodynamic properties of crystals has resulted either in solutions that are inaccurate because of oversimplification or in cumbersome accurate solutions. Moreover, all the solutions tend to fall with decreasing temperature. The purpose of this paper is to obtain the specific heat of a body-centered cubic crystal as a function of the absolute temperature, treating each atom as a harmonic oscillator vibrating about its lattice point. It is hoped that this method will show how the specific heat changes with temperature" – Introduction, p. 1.