Dalton's law
- noun
- /ˈdɔltənz lɔ/
- Specialized
:
ley de proporciones múltiples
- According to Dalton's law, the masses of nitrogen and oxygen in various compounds are always in simple whole-number ratios.
Examples
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According to Dalton's law, the ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in different oxides of hydrogen is always a simple whole number.
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Experiments in the early 19th century provided strong evidence in support of Dalton's law.
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Chemistry students often study Dalton's law when learning about the composition of compounds.
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The students learned about Dalton's law in chemistry class.
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Can you explain Dalton's law to me?
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Chemistry students often refer to Dalton's law to understand how different elements combine to form compounds.
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The professor explained Dalton's law to illustrate how two elements can create multiple compounds with fixed mass ratios.
Synonyms
When two elements form different compounds, the masses that combine with the same mass are in small whole number ratios
Surface Forms
Morphology
Dalton's + law
The form "Dalton's law" is compositionally predictable as a law named after a person (Dalton) because of the possessive + law pattern, so learners will infer it denotes some scientific rule. However, the specific chemical content (ratios of combining masses) is technical and cannot be derived from the constituents alone, so knowledge of the proper name or domain knowledge is required.
Etymology
Dalton's law comes from John Dalton noticing that when the same two elements form more than one compound, the amounts of one element that join a fixed amount of the other are small whole numbers like 1, 2, or 3. So, the law says these amounts are in simple whole-number ratios.
