Talk:Kelvin equation

As r increases, p decreases and the droplets grow into bulk liquid.--this is faulty since p's change depends on whether the value of r is positive or negative.

Confusion about equation's name(s)
The equation that appears in this article is NOT "Kelvin's equation". If you view Kelvin's equation of 1871 — Sir William Thomson (1871) "On the equilibrium of vapour at a curved surface of liquid," Philosophical Magazine, series 4, 42 (282) : 448-452 — you'll see that it does NOT have this form. The equation in this article is actually the Ostwald-Freundlich equation, which was developed in 1900 / 1909.

In another Wikipedia article, the Ostwald-Freundlich equation is listed as the Gibbs-Thomson equation. However, neither Gibbs nor Thomson had any direct involvement with the development of the Ostwald-Freundlich equation.

This article should be deleted and combined with the article on the Ostwald-Freundlich equation.

Cwkmail (talk) 03:47, 19 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I added the original form of the Kelvin equation, and inlined a link to it. I also clarified that the Ostwal-Freundlich equation is a rewrite of that. I also added a link to the page for the Gibbs-Thomson equation.  Merging all three pages is above my comfort level, but I think things are enough better now to remove the "expert attention needed" tag. PianoDan (talk) 16:53, 27 January 2022 (UTC)

Condensation or evaporation following the P/P0 relationship
Is this correct, as it is now listed in the article?
 * If $$p>p_0$$, then liquid evaporates from the droplets
 * If $$p ps, which seems logical since we need supersaturation of over 500% to start homogenous nucleation) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.41.6.144 (talk) 13:25, 25 October 2013 (UTC)