The Temperature Dependence of Electrical Resistance

The electrical resistance of a simple metal can be computed over a wide range of temperature by considering the thermal vibrations and the scattering from individual ions. Observations by MacDonald and Mendelssohn make possible a comparison with experiment from room temperature down to very low values. Moderate agreement for lithium and sodium can be obtained by a suitable choice of parameters, but the values necessary are not in close agreement with those suggested by other phenomena.An approximate method for taking into account all three normal modes of vibration with a given propagation vector also gives moderate agreement with the observations.