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To: Right Wing Professor

One could take the carbon monoxide down to (absolute) zero in a magnetic field. Then the entropy should be Sqrt(2) smaller than that of field free frozen CO. Melting of the crystals could be used to measure this difference.


668 posted on 11/08/2005 4:03:18 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Last time I checked, nobody had figured out how to make CO order. I don't think a magnetic field would work; I doubt the diamagnetic suceptibility anisotropy is large enough, and the barrier to rotation is too large.

The molecule I really like, though, it CH2D2. Even though the only departure from tetrahedral symmetry is isotopic, the molecules align at about 1 K. In this case, tunneling through the rotational barrier is fast enough to allow the disorder to anneal out.

671 posted on 11/08/2005 4:10:29 PM PST by Right Wing Professor (If you love peace, prepare for war. If you hate violence, own a gun.)
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