Elements in the history of the Periodic Table.
Discovery of the Periodic Table was rendered possible only after four decisive prerequisites had been achieved. These were (i) the abandonment of the metaphysical and occult notions of elements that typified the alchemical era; (ii) the adoption of a modern and workable definition of an element; (iii) the development of analytical chemical techniques for the isolation of the elements and determination of their properties; and (iv) the devising of a means of associating each element with a characteristic natural number. The Periodic Table made its appearance on cue almost as soon as these preconditions had been fulfilled.
Laws and Order in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry
1: The background of eighteenth century chemistry. 2: Chemical affinity and attraction in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. 3: Physical theories and their reception by chemists. 4: Tables of affinity and of elective attractions. 5: Classificaiton, quantification, and explanation. Index
PRACTICAL THEORY OF THREE-PARTICLE STATES. I. NONRELATIVISTIC
We use Faddeev's mathematical work on nonrelativistic three-particle systems to obtain a practical theory of three-particle states. Each of the two-particle subsystems is assumed to be dominated by a finite number of bound states and resonances. We then obtain two sets of equations. One expresses processes with three final particles in terms of unstable-particle scattering. It generalizes and justifies the isobar model. The other is a set of coupled Lippmann-Schwinger equations for the scattering of bound states and unstable particles. The potentials in these scattering equations for composite particles are nonlocal and energy-dependent, and become complex above the three-particle threshold. They are expressed in terms of the wave functions of the two-particle bound states and resonances---there are no new arbitrary constants. The solution satisfies three-particle unitarity. Unstable particles are not approximated by stable ones. The theory applies especially to "overlapping" final-state interactions. The equations are given in detail for the $3N$ and $N\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\pi}$ systems in the static limit. In the latter case, the nucleon is treated as an $N\ensuremath{\pi}$ bound state. The $N\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\pi}$ equations are solved approximately in closed form, giving analogs of the Chew-Low effective-range formula, for the coupled $N\ensuremath{\pi}$ and ${N}^{*}\ensuremath{\pi}$ systems. This predicts large inelasticity in the ${P}_{11}$ state, in agreement with experiment. Detailed solutions will be given in subsequent papers. If all elementary particles are treated as bound states of themselves, our approach gives the basis of a complete dynamical theory of strong interactions.