Stevens Institute of Technology

Hoboken, New Jersey

I "
Examination of 62 general chemistry cell is being considered. The second lav states that
texts (high school and college) and 11 physical chem- if q is constant, m is proportional to me.
istry texts a t the book exhihit of the September 1959 A single proportionalit,y mhirh includes both state-
ACS meeting showed that many are still presenting ments is:
Faraday's laws of electrolysis virt,ually in the original
form."ome are replacing them with the statement 9%
(1)
that 96.500 coulombs h o s t recent value 06.489.9 Y"G
i- 2.0) passed through an electrolytic cell, will cause
one gram equivalent weight of material to react or since, if m, is constant, q a m, and, if p is constant,
form a t an electrode. The advantages of this presen- m/m, = constant or m a me Rewriting (1) as an
tat,ion are recognized by many teachers. The following equation :
simple derivations of the single-equation statement,
along the lines suggested hy Nopes and Sherrill,3 may
have interest.
Analysis of the two laws reveals that they concern Calling this constaut F (for Faraday) and m/m, the
three variables: quant,ity of electricity (charge, p), number of equivalents, n :
amount of mat,erial (mass, m), and gram equivalent
weight (m,). In each laxv, one variable is held constant.
The first law states that g is proportional to m when m,
is constant, i.e., a particular substance in a particular is a mathematical statement of Faraday's law.
This form of Faraday's law, with t,he definitions
Prcsent address: Inter American University, San Genn&n,
Puerta Rico.
2 FARADAT, M., Phil. Trans.Roy. Soc. 124,77 (1834).
8 NOTES,A. A,, AND SHERRILI., M. Q., "A Coume of Study in
Chemical Principles," The Macmillsn Co., New Yark, 2nd can be used to solve readily all the general chemistry
cd., 1938. problems eom~nonlygiven on Faraday's laws.

98 / Journal of Chemical Education