Definition of the rate of cooling. Many causes may conspire in the cooling of a body.
Cooling in space. Newton’s law only an approximation. Experimental investigation of the true law. Method to be followed in this investigation. The velocity of cooling is not a datum directly observable. It must be deduced provisionally from an empirical relation between the temperature and the time. Preliminary experiments. Course of the definitive experiments. Elementary experimental laws.
Hypothetical form of the function which expresses the velocity of cooling. To determine by means of the preceding experimental laws the unknown form of the function which expresses the law of radiation. Relation between the temperatures and the times. This relation only contains data immediately observable, and may be verified à posteriori.
The contents which enter into the preceding relation depend upon thermometric constants and the nature of the radiating surface.
The contact of a gas modifies the law of cooling.
Lessons 20–21. Propagation by Contact.
Slow propagation of heat in the interior of bodies, in solids, liquids, and gases. Confirmatory experiments. Hypothesis of partial radiation. Theoretical law resulting from this hypothesis upon the decrease of temperatures in a solid limited by two indefinite parallel planes maintained at constant temperatures. Determination of the co-efficient of conductibility by the experimental realization of these conditions. This experiment determines a numerical value of the co-efficients; it is not of a nature to serve as a check upon the theoretical principles. Enunciation of the law resulting from the same theoretical principles upon the decrease of temperatures in a thin bar heated at one end.
CALORIMETRY.
Lessons 22–23. Specific Heats.
Comparison of the quantities of heat. The quantities of heat are not proportioned to the temperatures. Definitions of the unity of heat. General method of mixtures to estimate the quantities of heat. Experimental precautions and corrections.