The Statistical Theory of the Elasticity of Rubber
Abstract The theoretical investigations of various authors, with the aid of which the physical properties of rubber-like substances have become understood on a basis of intermolecular statistics, have not, at least from a quantitative point of view, kept pace with investigations relating to kinetic theories of gases. However, only the facts of rubber elasticity have become understood, and to point out one case, the coefficient of elasticity cannot be derived, and much less the tension zone, beyond proportionality. The reason for this is that, although statistics of a single chain molecule of finite size can be compiled, the bond of the chain molecule and, as a further instance, the behavior of a molecule of infinite size formed by interlacing have not been clearly understood up to the present time. Consequently, it has been possible to gain an insight into the statistical behavior of individual chain molecules much more easily than into that of a piece of rubber, and therefore to deduce with less difficulty theories of the viscosity of high molecular solutions and similar systems. In the case of rubber, progress has been more difficult in explaining the effects which take place.