124 PROPERTIES OF ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTING SYSTEMS 



creases the more, the greater the value of the ratio. In other words, 

 these ratios appear to approach unity, as a limit at high temperatures. 

 The conductances of all ions, therefore, appear to approach that of very 

 slowly moving ions. For example, at the conductance of the hydrogen 

 ion is 11.82 times that of the acetate ion, while at 306 it is only 1.82 

 times that of this ion. At the conductance of the potassium ion is 

 1.99 times that of the acetate ion, while at 306 it is only 1.18 times that 

 of this ion. At the conductance of the sodium ion is 1.28 times that 

 of the acetate ion, whereas at 306 it is only 1.11 times that of the same 



12 



H+ 



6 

 OH- 



t 



Nor 



100 200' 



Temperature. 



3> 



d 



FIG. 21. Showing the Relative Change of Ionic Conductances with Temperature. 



ion. It is evident, therefore, that as the temperature increases the speeds 

 of the different ions approach a common value. With the exception of 

 the nitrate ion, the curves for the ionic conductances do not intersect. 

 At low temperatures, however, the relative conductance of the nitrate 

 ion, with respect to that of the acetate ion, decreases much more rapidly 

 than it does for other ions having the same conducting power. At 

 the ratio of the conductance of the nitrate ion to that of the acetate 

 ion is 1.99, whereas at 25 it is only 1.73. In the case of the potassium 

 ion at the lower temperature, the ratio is also 1.99, but at 25 it is 1.83. 



These results have an important bearing on our conceptions as to 

 the nature of the conducting particles, particularly as regards the effect 

 of temperature on the speed of these particles. As has been shown by 



