Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Onsager Reciprocal Relations: Microscopic (Onsager) Or Macroscopic (Sliepcevich), R. E. "Buddy" Babcock

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is a combination of the discussion of two nineteenth century theoretical giantsLars Onsager and C. M. Sliepcevich, their works in general, and specifically the famousreciprocal relations of Onsager with respect to irreversible thermodynamics. Emphasis isplaced on their penetrating depth and breadth of analysis so inherently necessary in theirproblem-solving endeavors. The landscape of their work will be laid out for the readerby a comparison of Onsager’s microscopic statistical mechanics derivation of the famousreciprocal relationships and a macroscopic thermodynamic derivation published by C. M.Sliepsevich that led to considerable discussion in the literature in the 1960’s. Somelabelled this discussion a controversy; …