NOTE ON SYMBOLS AND NOMENCLATURE 



F. G. DONNAN 



In the following Commentary on the thermodynamic writings 

 of J. Willard Gibbs the symbols used by him for the principal 

 thermodynamic quantities have been retained in general. Since 

 the majority of authors have employed symbols which differ con- 

 siderably from those of Gibbs, and the notation employed varies 

 in some respects from author to author, a short comparison 

 Table is given below. There has also existed, and indeed still 

 exists, a very considerable variation of usage as regards the 

 names assigned to some of the quantities. It has therefore been 

 thought desirable to give a correlated list of the principal names 

 which are, or have been, employed. We shall denote six im- 

 portant thermodynamic quantities by the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 

 6. The symbols assigned to these six quantities by Gibbs and 



TABLE 1 

 Comparison of Symbols 



