LONG AND SHORT-RANGE INTERMOLECULAR AND INTERCOLLOIDAL FORCES

The way we now automatically speak of directly measured intermolecular or intercolloidal forces represents a qualitative change from the ind irect way such forces used to be inferred from aggregation kinetics or from measurements on much larger or smaller systems. The big change i s in the way colloids or macromolecules can now be observed, confined, manipulated, put under collective stress or subjected to discrete for ces.