The Magnetic Susceptibilities of Some Common Gases

Abstract

The Faraday test body method, which had been developed and used by the author for finding the magnetic susceptibility of N${\mathrm{O}}_2$, has been applied to the measurement of the magnetic susceptibilities of several common gases at room and at liquid air temperatures. The following values ×${10}^6$ were obtained for the molecular suceptibilities: $\chi \left({\mathrm{H}}_2\right)=-4.0051\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left(\mathrm{He}\right)=-1.906\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left(\mathrm{Ne}\right)=-7.651\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left(\mathrm{A}\right)=-19.23\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left(\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{O}}_2\right)=-20.88\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left({\mathrm{N}}_2\right)=-11.938\mathrm{}$ at room temperatures, and $\chi \left({\mathrm{H}}_2\right)=-3.98\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left(\mathrm{He}\right)=-1.91\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left(\mathrm{Ne}\right)=-7.64\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left(\mathrm{A}\right)=-19.8\mathrm{}$, $\chi \left({\mathrm{O}}_2\right)=11830\mathrm{}$ at liquid air temperatures. These values are based on the provisional value of $\chi \left({\mathrm{O}}_2\right)=3335\mathrm{}\times {10}^{-6\mathrm{}}$ at 20°C. The results show that the diamagnetic susceptibilities do not vary, within the experimental error, in going from room to liquid air temperatures. This is contrary to the 40 percent change observed for hydrogen by Bitter. The susceptibility of oxygen was found to follow Curie's law to within 2 percent.