乡亲们
It still surprises me that my most popular blog topic in the 15 years (yikes!) that I have been blogging is how to calculate solder alloy density having the mass fractions and densities of the alloy metals. Some years ago, I received the following comment on a blog post on this topic. The names and companies have been changed to protect the innocent (guilty?):
拉斯基博士
我是约翰-史密斯，冶金学博士。我饶有兴趣地阅读了您关于计算合金密度的文章。当然，您的公式1/rhoTotal =x/rhox+y/rhoy不可能是正确的。我在 ACME 金属公司工作了 30 多年，一直使用的公式是rhoTotal =xrhox+yrhoy。
请告诉我这没有错！
Best,
John Smith
Sorry, Dr. Smith;it is wrong. The correct derivation for 1/rhoTotal = x/rhox + y/rhoy is given here. For years, I havethought of ways to explain why rhoTotal = xrhox + yrhoy is not correct. One obvious point is that density has the units of mass/volume, so it is not obvious that rhoTotal = xrhox + yrhoy should work since x and y are mass fractions. But, in spite of this point, this wrong equation is even in textbooks.
So, I decided to calculate terms that when multiplied by the metal densities dogive the total density. I call these terms “density fractions.” I put them in quotes because if you look at the derivation, you will see that they are not quite in the form of a mass fraction.
Also, these density fractions are not useful in that you have to know the density of the alloy to calculate them. Note that the incorrect equation rhoTotal = xrhox + yrhoywould give a density for tin-lead eutectic solder of 8.79 g/cc, an error of 4.625%.
The derivation of the “density fraction” follows.
干杯
罗恩博士
