Note 11 — Chapter VI · TTHE COMPOUNDS OF NITROGEN WITH HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN

This may be verified by their densities. Nitrogen is 14 times denser than hydrogen, and ammonia is 8½ times. If 3 volumes of hydrogen with 1 volume of nitrogen gave 4 volumes of ammonia, then these 4 volumes would weigh 17 times as much as 1 volume of hydrogen; consequently 1 volume of ammonia would be 4¼ times heavier than the same volume of hydrogen. But if these 4 volumes only give 2 volumes of ammonia, the latter will be 8½ times as dense as hydrogen, which is found to be actually the case.