Chemistry Reference
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macroscopic considerations while sufficiently accurate to entail the macroscopic
properties. Despite all the work that has been put into elucidating the microstructure
of water, a sufficiently accurate description facilitating the deduction of thermody-
namic properties still eludes us.
I have tried to say something about how micro- and macrocriteria for being a
single substance and the same substance work together. The dominating idea has
been that the notion of substance is one that applies to macroscopic quantities of
matter for macroscopic intervals of time. Questions arise about the precise lower
limits of these magnitudes and whether a single, universal criterion of sameness
settling all questions will emerge. This conception might be criticised for not
including recently reported transuranium elements whose discovery has been
claimed on the strength of the fleeting existence of no more than a few atoms.
Polymers might also be seen as threatening the conception of substance, where
features of the mixture of molecular kinds, such as the distribution of chain length,
are controlled for optimal properties of the macroscopic quantities of material and
the question of sameness of substance becomes irrelevant. Shorted-lived reaction
intermediates and transition states aren
t around long enough for what is true of
macroscopic intervals of time to apply. Clearly, the notion of substance is not the
chemist
'
s only concern, and it has not been my intention to suggest otherwise.
I only claim that it continues to be an important concern.
'
References
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