Generalizing the Phase Rule

This brief note calls attention to the literature discussing four pedagogical points relating to the application and teaching of the well-known Gibbs phase rule: (i) suggestions that the component term be broken into a species term, an equilibrated reaction term, and an independent stoichiometric co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of chemical education Vol. 78; no. 10; p. 1369
Main Author Jensen, William B
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Easton Division of Chemical Education 01.10.2001
American Chemical Society
Subjects
Chemistry
Phase rule
Science education
Teaching
Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics
Physical Chemistry
Upper-Division Undergraduate
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Summary:This brief note calls attention to the literature discussing four pedagogical points relating to the application and teaching of the well-known Gibbs phase rule: (i) suggestions that the component term be broken into a species term, an equilibrated reaction term, and an independent stoichiometric constraint term; (ii) suggestions that the number of intensive fields be left as a variable rather than being automatically set at a value of two; (iii) debates on whether the rule needs further modification when dealing with optical enantiomers; and (iv) questions of whether textbook problems that ask students to predict the degrees of freedom ahead of time are realistic.
ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/ed078p1369