296 
But, as has been said, a true insight — especially as far as the 
relation between A and hv is concerned — cannot be obtained 
until the law of attraction is accurately known; then the quantities 
h and v will also appear automatously in the law of the action 
between two atoms (molecules). 
We shall see in what follows that the real active force is by no 
means merely an exclusively attractive action increasing in intensity, 
which is only transformed into a repulsive force at collision or at 
a very short distance — but that from the very beginning the action 
has been periodically attractive and repulsive, which only becomes 
stronger and stronger on approach of the atoms. Several known 
phenomena can now be explained more easily, not only in the 
sphere of the solid bodies (and of the liquids), but also in that of 
the gases — particularly as concerns the so-called “gas-degeneration” 
at very low temperatures. 
§ 9. Derivation of the Elementary Law of Force. 
To simplify the calculations, we shall again place ourselves at 
the standpoint of the problem of one dimension. In connection with 
this the circular motion of the electrons round the positive nucleus 
must be transformed into a motion to and fro rectilinearly, viz. 
the projection of the circular motion on the direction of the joining 
line of the two nuclei, so that the electrons always move (fictitiously) 
to and fro through the nucleus. 
Let r be the distance of the two nuclei A and B, a the radius of 
the orbit of the electrons (thought 
A et A = perfectly circular), so that the devia- 
| 2 tions «& and y of the electrons 
Fig. 1. from the centre are represented by 
/ 
t t 
re =a sind, y=asinan 7 We then have together for the 
J. 
repulsive and attractive forces (see Fig. 1): 
ib | 1 et ae | 
=a. == - 
r? (rta—y)? (rde)? (r—y)’ 
when for the present we confine ourselves in our considerations to 
mon-atomic substances, while only one electron moves round the 
nucleus. (H-atoms). | 
When an atom M moves between two other atoms Pand Q, the 
total action (taken positive when M is drawn to the right (P)) 
