A standard sodium hydrate solution can be prepared by dissolving 42 grammes of sodium hydrate, making up to a litre, and diluting until one cubic centimetre is exactly equivalent to one cubic centimetre of the sulphuric acid.
Let x be the number of molecules which dissociate per second when the number of undissociated molecules in unit volume is unity, then in a dilute solution where the molecules do not interfere with each other, xp is the number when the concentration is p. Recombination can only occur when two ions meet, and since the frequency with which this will happen is, in dilute solution, proportional to the square of the ionic concentration, we shall get for the number of molecules re-formed in one second ye where q is the number of dissociated molecules in one cubic centimetre.
The closed figure a c d e a is variously called a hysteresis curve or diagram or loop. The area f HdB enclosed by it represents the work done in carrying a cubic centimetre of the iron through the corresponding magnetic cycle; expressed in ergs this work is I HdB.
When the magnetizing current is twice reversed, so as to complete a cycle, the sum of the two deflections, multiplied by a factor depending upon the sectional area of the specimen and upon the constants of the apparatus, gives the hysteresis for a complete cycle in ergs per cubic centimetre.
Denoting by W the work in ergs done upon a cubic centimetre of the metal (=_fHdB or f HdI), he finds W =nips approximately, where n 47r is a number, called the hysteretic constant, depending upon the metal, and B is the maximum induction.
