Il Nuovo Cimento (1955-1965)

, Volume 5, Supplement 3, pp 472–478 | Cite as

Variational principles and chemical reactions

  • W. Yourgrau
  • C. J. G. Raw
Article
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Conclusion

In spite of all these superficial resemblances, any rigid attempt at reducing chemical reactionsin toto dynamical systems and thus to variational principles is doomed to failure. Resorting to pictorial representation of a chemical process as a means of illustrating the macroscopic process is of value only as a broad auxiliary simplification facilitating the interrelation of theory and experimental data. Any deeper understanding of a chemical reaction demands recourse to quantum-mechanical methods which operate in the microscopic field of molecular structure.

It is thus only in a restricted sense that minimum principles, in the form of « least » theorems, can be derived for the equilibrium or steady state situation. Variational theorems — and this includes minimum principles — are no less and no more than means of summarizing existing results.

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Copyright information

© Società Italiana di Fisica 1957

Authors and Affiliations

  • W. Yourgrau
    • 1
  • C. J. G. Raw
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Philosophy of ScienceUniversity of NatalPietermaritzburgSouth Africa
  2. 2.Department of Chemistry and Chemical TechnologyUniversity of NatalPietermaritzburgSouth Africa

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