■«» * r- 





THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 



AUGUST 1910. 



v-rf 



XX. Molecular and Electronic Potential Energy. 

 By William Suthekland*. 



IN previous communications it has been shown that cohesion 

 can be explained by the attractions between each mole- 

 cule and its immediate neighbours. For the general case o£ 

 a homogeneous isotropic substance the most convenient 

 average arrangement of the molecules to be taken as mathe- 

 matically representative o£ that of Nature is the cubical one, 

 in which case each molecule has six nearest neighbours. 

 Each molecule may be regarded as an electrized sphere 

 analogous to the Earth as a magnetized sphere. It has an 

 electric moment, which in several of my papers is denoted 

 by es, originally used to indicate the simplest electric moment, 

 that of two opposite electron charges e at distance s apart. 

 But es may be regarded as the symbol for the electric moment 

 of the molecule, however produced. Outside of the molecule 

 the electrization acts like an electric doublet of infinitely 

 small axis but of finite moment es placed at the centre of the 

 molecule. For the sake of simplicity and without any real 

 loss of generality we may imagine the electric axis of a 

 molecule parallel to one set oT the edges in our assumed 

 cubical arrangement. Then in order that a molecule may 

 attract its six immediate neighbours it must have its electric 

 axis similarly directed to those of its two axial neighbours, 

 and oppositely directed to those of its four lateral neighbours. 



* Communicated "by the Author. 

 Phil Mag. S. 6. Yol. 20. No. 116. Aug. 1910. S 



