Talk:Julius von Mayer

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I wrote a rather shoddy single page article on Mayer for biology class; however, I don't think it's good enough to put up ust yet. If someone would like to rewrite part of it and wikify it, it would help expand this stub. The Mayers' Relation equation will need added back in as well, or separated to a different page.

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Julius Robert von Mayer was a German physicist, born on November 25, 1814. He described the chemical process of oxidization as the primary source of energy for all living creatures. Even as a child, Mayer showed great interest in mechanical mechanisms; in fact, one of his hobbies was the construction of various electrical devices and air pumps. In 1832, he attended Eberhard Karls University, where he studied medicine. After being arrested and expelled for wearing the colors of a forbidden organization (??), he traveled throughout Switzerland, France, and the Dutch East Indies, and gained additional interest in mathematics and engineering from Carl Baur, a private tutor.

By 1841 he had returned to practice to medicine, but physics was his new passion. That same year, he completed his first paper, On the Quantitative and Qualitative Determination of Forces, which was largely ignored at the time. He also became interested in heat and its motion. Mayer presented a value for the mechanical equivalent of heat, in his proof of what is now known as Mayers' Relation, which states that the specific heat of a gas at constant pressure minus the specific heat of a gas at constant volume is equal to the gas constant. The credit for this, along with his discovery of oxidization, was given to James Joule, since Mayer's work had been overlooked due to his lack of prominence. As a result, he spent some time in mental institutions, recovering from a near suicide and the death of several of his children.

Bennett, Clark. "Julius Robert von Mayer." Founding Fathers of Relativity.14 Mar 2005. <http://www.usd.edu/phys/courses/phys300/gallery/clark/vonmayer.html>

Missing/misspelled word should be fixed

whether the directly developed heat alone or whether the sum of the amounts of heat developed in direct and indirect ways contributes to the temperature.

the --> they? Or something else? An exact citation would help.

„ob die direkt entwickelte Wärme (Verbrennungswärme) allein oder ob die Summe der auf direktem und indirektem Wege entwickelten Wärmemengen auf Rechnung des Verbrennungsprozesses geht“

"Whether the directly developed heat alone (the heat of burning), or the sum of the quantities of heat developed in direct and indirect ways are to be accounted for in the burning process.".

Okay, we'll go with this

89.217.18.139 (talk) 12:09, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Sentence probably mistyped

Several of his papers were published due to the advanced nature of the physics and chemistry.

The intention of this sentence is not clear, or I'd fix it.

89.217.18.139 (talk) 12:09, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Problems in "Mayer's Relation" section

(1) Is C_{P,m} the same as C_P? Is C_{V,m} the same as C_V?

(2) If we compare the expressions in the two formulas, then we deduce that R = VT β^2/α_T, which seems wrong.

Later we conclude things about liquids, solids, and absolute zero, though the law was originally stated for gases.

The problem seems to be in the transition phrase "It can also be expressed as...". There must be a hypothesis missing here, like "let's switch to general homogeneous substances, not just ideal gases".

89.217.18.139 (talk) 12:26, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Fixed. 89.217.18.139 (talk) 12:34, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Degrading

Mayer was aware of the importance of his discovery, but his inability to express himself scientifically led to degrading speculation and resistance from the scientific establishment.

The word choice is odd and I can't discern the intention. Unpleasant scientific gossip? Hostile commentary? An unfriendly reception? Üble Nachrede?

inconsistent subscripting by T

Sometimes it is α that is subscripted by T, and sometimes it is β that is subscripted by T. Presumably it is just a typo, but even so I don’t know which way it should be corrected. Kontribuanto (talk) 15:15, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

@Kontribuanto: Thanks for pointing out. I request you to be a little more elaborate. It would be great if you can exactly point out the instances where it is wrong. Regards, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (talk • mail) 16:11, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

Name of subject and title of article

Mayer did not use "Julius" during his lifetime, preferring to go by "Robert." There is one major biography of Mayer, an outstanding work by a first-rate historian of science, Kenneth Caneva. His book is entitled "Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy." Knowledgeable historians always refer to him as Robert Mayer or Robert von Mayer. The title of the Wikipedia article should be "Robert von Mayer", not "Julius von Mayer".Ajrocke (talk) 13:14, 16 June 2019 (UTC)