| Date | Text | |
|---|---|---|
25 Jun 1864
Walther Hermann Nernst |
birth Walther Hermann Nernst Born 25 Jun 1864; died 18 Nov 1941 at age 77. German physical chemist who was one of the founders of modern physical chemistry. In 1889, he devised his theory of electric potential and conduction of electrolytic solutions (the Nernst Equation) and introduced the solubility product to explain precipitation reactions. In 1906, Nernst showed that it is possible to determine the equilibrium constant for a chemical reaction from thermal data, and in so doing he formulated what he himself called the third law of thermodynamics. This states that the entropy, (a thermodynamic measure of disorder in a system), approaches zero as the temperature goes towards absolute zero. For this, he was awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1918, he explained the H2-Cl2 explosion on exposure to light as an atom chain reaction. |
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25 Jun 1864
Walther Nernst |
birth Walther Nernst Walther Nernst (died 1941), German chemist. |
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