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A note on the melting-point of paraffins and fatty acids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

E. B. Moullin
E. B. Moullin
Affiliation:
Magdalen College, Oxford
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Extract

The purpose of this note is to draw attention to a certain correspondence between the melting-points of normal paraffins and of fatty acids and to indicate a simple interpretation of this phenomenon. If the number of carbon atoms in a normal paraffin is plotted against the corresponding melting temperature, all the points in the diagram lie very close to a smooth curve drawn among them. If a similar diagram is made for the fatty acids, the points corresponding to an even number of carbon atoms lie on a curve of the same character as that found for paraffins. The points for an odd number of carbon atoms lie on a separate but similar curve, exemplifying the well-known alternation property.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , July 1938 , pp. 459 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1938

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References

* Experiment shows that for small values of N the linear relationship is much improved by plotting log (N − 2) rather than log N.