Finding on the Similarity between the Two Empirical Formulas: Temperature Dependence of Volumetric Expansion of Gas and Temperature Dependence of Resistivity of Conductor

Abstract

This paper finds and examines the similarity between the temperature dependence of volumetric expansion of gases and the temperature dependence of resistance of conductors. In the 1780s, Jacques Charles came to know that the volume of the gas was proportionally increasing as temperature increased. He also stated that the rate of volume expansion was not dependent on the kinds of gases. In the early 19th century, Georg Ohm discovered the electric resistance. It was known that the electric resistivity of conductors changed with temperature. At the room temperature, the measured temperature coefficients of resistance for silver, copper, aluminum and gold are 0.0038, 0.0039, 0.0039 and 0.0034 respectively. When the temperature coefficient, 1/273, in Charles’s law is expressed in a decimal, it indicates 0.0037. The finding of the similarity between the temperature dependence of volumetric expansion of gases and the temperature dependence of resistance of conductors is as follows: first, they have a linear relationship with respect to the temperature change; second, temperature coefficients are very close to each other; third, they are not dependent on the kinds of materials, lastly, the empirical formulas are also convertible each other mathematically. In this study, I here find that there is a similarity between the two empirical formulas. The temperature dependence of atomic vibration is suggested as the cause of the similarity. In addition, it is suggested that the volumetric expansion of gas could be related with the atomic vibration. This finding of similarity will be helpful for our understanding in the features of intrinsic behaviors of a gas molecular motion.