Merle Randall facts for kids
Merle Randall (born January 29, 1888 – died March 17, 1950) was an American physical chemist. He worked closely with Gilbert N. Lewis for 25 years. They were famous for measuring the heat released or absorbed in chemical reactions. They also figured out the free energy of chemical compounds.
In 1923, Lewis and Randall wrote a classic textbook. It was called "Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances." This book was very important in the field of chemical thermodynamics. In 1932, Merle Randall also wrote two scientific papers with Mikkel Frandsen. These papers were about the electrical potential of iron and the activity of iron compounds.
Education and Early Work
Merle Randall earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1912. His main research for his degree was about "Studies in Free Energy." This showed his early interest in this important scientific idea.
Understanding Chemical Energy
A scientist named Josiah Willard Gibbs had already shown that chemical reactions naturally move towards a balanced state. This balance is called equilibrium. It depends on the free energy of the chemicals involved.
Gilbert Lewis spent 25 years studying this idea. He worked to find the free energy of many different substances. In 1923, he and Randall published their findings. Their book helped to clearly define and organize the study of chemical thermodynamics.
Their influential textbook changed how scientists talked about chemical reactions. According to a Belgian scientist named Ilya Prigogine, their book helped replace the old term "affinity" with "free energy" in English-speaking countries. This made it easier for everyone to understand how chemical reactions work.
See also
In Spanish: Merle Randall para niños
