The Mathematics of Diffusion

Abstract

The author is not concerned with the mechanism of diffusion but rather with solutions of the differential equations which pertain to diffusion. The starting point is the expression presented by Pick, 100 years ago. The writing concludes with research published in 1954. The first half of the book shows clearly that many diffusion problems can be solved analytically by means of separation of variables, error functions, Laplace transforms, hyperbolic functions, Bessel functions, Fourier series and gamma functions. The work of Carslaw and Jaeger on heat conduction is relied on heavily in this portion, and a number of their tables are reproduced in the Appendix. © 1957, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.