VALIDITY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF LE CHATELIER. 



3a 



Th 



en 



dG 



(54) 



Hence the point moves along the curve in the direction Ai A2, i.e. still 

 farther away from equilibrium. 



On the other hand, the same reasoning applied to a curve sloping- 

 downward from left to right shows that the system after displacement 

 returns to its equilibrium position. 



So, for example, the curves representing the relation between pres- 



G 



Figure 1 . 



sure and volume of a gas necessarily slope downward from left to 

 right; the same is true of the demand and supply curves of economics. 

 If it were true, as sometimes stated, that the more a man has, the more 

 he wants, economic equilibrium would be an unstable condition. 



External Stability and the Principle of Le Chatelier. Consider now 

 a system which obeys the condition . 



<p {x, G, H)]= 



dG> 



dt ~^ 



> 



according asH — He~0 



(55) 

 (56) 



