Page:Scientific Papers of Josiah Willard Gibbs.djvu/293

Rh It appears therefore that $$W$$ is a somewhat one-sided measure of stability.

It must be remembered in this connection that the fundamental equation of a surface of discontinuity can hardly be regarded as capable of experimental determination, except for plane surfaces (see pp. 231–233), although the relation for spherical surfaces is in the nature of things entirely determined, at least so far as the phases are separately capable of existence. Yet the foregoing discussion yields the following practical results. It has been shown that the real stability of a phase extends in general beyond that limit (discussed on pages 103–105), which may be called the limit of practical stability, at which the phase can exist in contact with another at a plane surface, and a formula has been deduced to express the degree of stability in such cases as measured by the amount of work necessary to upset the equilibrium of the phase when supposed to extend indefinitely in space. It has also been shown to be entirely consistent with the principles established that this stability should have limits, and the manner in which the general equations would accommodate themselves to this case has been pointed out.

By equation (553), which may be written we see that the work $$W$$ consists of two parts, of which one is always positive, and is expressed by the product of the superficial tension and the area of the surface of tension, and the other is always negative, and is numerically equal to the product of the difference of pressure by the volume of the interior mass. We may regard the first part as expressing the work spent in forming the surface of tension, and the second part the work gained in forming the interior mass. Moreover, the second of these quantities, if we neglect its