| Author(s): |
I. Müller and P. Strehlow |
| Publisher: |
Springer |
| ISBN: |
3540202447 |
| Format: |
hardback |
|
123pp |
| Price: |
£38.50, $59.95, €49,95 + VAT |
| Review Date: |
10 May 2004 |
| Review: |
Rubber balloons form a suitable subject for mathematical study and an interesting paradigm of methods of modelling in physics and chemistry. Rubber is an elastic material with unique extensibility and is perfectly resilient. The elasticity of rubber and that of gases are both entropy-induced; a rubber balloon represents a compromise between the entropic tendency of a gas to expand and the entropic tendency of rubber to contract. Experiments with balloons and rubber sheets have led to surprising observations. In balloons, these phenomena are the result of the nonmonotonic pressure–radius characteristics that make balloons a subject of interest to physicists engaged in stability studies. this book gives a thorough exposition of the subject. |