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Transformation of Matter
313
of sodium fluoride present and free sodium and fluorine. Then at higher temperatures the portion of free sodium and fluorine will increase. Also, the propotion of the fluorine which is in the form of single atoms rather than in the molecules will increase at high temperatures. The precise composition of such a mixture could in fact be worked out if we knew all the quantities of energy actually involved.
In more complex chemical reactions in which atoms are interchanged between molecules there are more quantities of energy to be considered. There are the energies which bave to be supplied before the separate molecules can be dissociated and also the energies gained by formation of the new types of molecules. Even in a gaseous mixture there will be ample opportunity for interchanges during collisions between molecules. The course of a given chemical reaction will depend on all these quantities of energy and upon the temperature, and also on the concentrations in which the various (substances are present."
The chemical behaviour as explained above is similar to the Jaina conception of evolution of matter by the process of combination, of dissociation and of both combination and dissociation of atoms.
Besides, in the physical sciences solid, liquid, and gaseous states of Matter and their respective changes of state are explained in the following manner : “From X-ray studies it is known that in crystalline solids the atoms are all located at definite point in a lattice arrangement. The atoms vibrate about these lattice points, the amplitude of the vibration, increasing with the rise in temperature. At the melting point, which occurs at a fixed temperature different for crystalline substance, the amplitudes of the vibrations have become so large as to disturb the orderly arrangement of the atoms. Heat energy absorbed by the solid during the meating process is
1. Atoms and the Universe, pp. 132-133.
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