Introduction mass and packing of matter

Mass and Packing are the most important fundamental properties of matter. Nearly all other properties are eventually determined by these two. Whereas Mass is unambiguously defined and measurable, Packing is by no means a simple property it is highly influenced by the electronic structure of the atoms, by the type of bonding forces and by structural and spatial variations. 

Some properties are directly connected with mass and packing density (or its reciprocal specific volume), thermal expansibility and isothermal compressibility. Especially the mechanical properties, such as moduli, Poisson ratio, etc., depend on mass and packing. In this chapter we shall discuss the densimetric and volumetric properties of polymers, especially density and its variations as a function of temperature and pressure. Density is defined as a ratio  

Because of the sequential nature of polymers we may also use the molar mass and volume of the structural unit  

The chapter will be divided into the following parts  

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