DOCS.
314,
315
NOVEMBER
1911 229
Furthermore,
Kamerlingh
Onnes
sent
me
for
my
perusal
the
proofs
of
a
superb
article for
the
Encykl.
d.
math.
Wissensch.:
V, 10
"Die
Zustandsgleichung"
["The
Equation
of
State"]
by
Kamerlingh
Onnes and
Keesom,
a
marvelous
review
article
of
almost 250
pages,
which
strongly
testifies
to
Keesom's
perseverance
and
conscientious-
ness.[7]
I think
I
better
send
you
this
work,
after all-even
though
the
original
work
of
Keesom
it
contains
will
no
doubt
also
appear
in
the
"Proceedings"-because
you
must
have at
your disposal
a
store
of information that
is
as
complete
as
possible.
Isn't
Debije
also
working on
such
an
article? And what
is
its
title?[8]
I wrote to
Debije,
and he
confirmed
what
I
already
knew from
you,
namely
that
he
would
gladly
come
to
Utrecht
if he received
an
offer.[9]
You
have
no
idea
how
sorry
we
are
that
we
failed to
bring you
here.
I know for
sure
that
it would have
been
all
right
with all Dutch
people.
But
now
either
one
party
or
the
other
will
certainly
feel
disappointed.
That's
fate.
You
could not have
acted
differently
either.
315. To
Marian
von
Smoluchowski
Prague,
27 November
[19]11
Highly
esteemed
Colleague:
Thank
you so
much for
sending
me
the
interesting papers;
like
everything
else
you
write, they
are
of
great
interest
to
me.
The
new
paper
on opalescence[1]
contains
something,
however,
with which
I
do
not agree (about
the
blue
of
the
sky)
and
to
which
I would like to draw
your
attention.[2]
Specifically,
in
my
opinion, Reyleigh's argument[3]
also
refers
exclusively
to
irregularly
distributed
particles
and holds
only
for that
case.
Thus,
for
example,
in Phil.
Mag.
47, p.
377,
eq. (3)
follows from
(2) only
if the
particles
are irregularly
distributed,[4]
because
only
in
that
case
do
n
particles
emit
n
times
as
much
energy
as one
particle,
whereas
a
uniform distribution of
the
particles
and
a sufficiently
great
number of
particles
in
a
cube whose sides
measure one
wavelength
would
lead
to
a
much better
approximation to
an
ideal
diathermal behavior of
the
medium.
The
same
applies
also to the
argument
sketched
on
p.
379.
For the
phase
shift
put
forward in
(8)
refers
to
an
isolated
particle
and would be invalid
for
a
system
of
regularly
arrayed
particles.[5]
Thus,
there does
not exist
a
"molecular
opalescence"
in
addition
to
the fluctuation
opalescence
that
you explained;
rather,
Reyleigh definitely
treats
a
special
case
of
our
problem,
and the
agreement
between
his final
formula
and
mine
is not
accidental.
With
best
regards,
I
remain
your very
devoted
A.
Einstein
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