
A generic divorce image of two people ceasing to have further interaction, at which point the bond breaks or dissolves. [3]

A generic divorce image of two people ceasing to have further interaction, at which point the bond breaks or dissolves. [3]

In terminology, divorce refers to the point in time at which a legal marriage becomes legally dissolved.

Overview | Reaction
The chemical reaction notation for divorce is:

AB → A + B

where reactant AB is a dihumanide molecule and the products, A and B, are "single" unattached human molecules, and is called a debonding reaction or dissolution reaction. Statistically speaking, in American, about 43 percent of new marriages will go through a "divorce reaction" of this type by the point of the 15-year mark.

If there is an affair involved the reaction is what is called a single elective affinity or single displacement reaction, the type of reaction that formed the basis of much of German polymath Johann Goethe's 1809 scientific novella Elective Affinities.

A few examples of these latter types of single displacement divorce reactions, shown in the style of Cullen reaction diagrams, are depicted below, showing that the force of chemical affinity is has a stronger preference for one over another, as indicated by the "reaction dart", to the effect that the person will be "forced" to leave the confines of the established bond, signified by the bonding bracket, and to form a new relationship with the more reactant to which the force of affinity is stronger:

Examples of simple chemical single elective affinity reactions (left) and human single elective affinity reactions (right).

The 1990s work of American mathematical psychologist John Gottman arrived at a formula able to predict divorce to within a 94% accuracy videotaping and studying the micro-second-by-microsecond exchange rate of interactions of couples in his love labs, findings which underlie the theory of the Gottman stability ratio. [1]

Thermodynamics
In 2009, Indian chemist Surya Pati argued that the underlying thermodynamic reason for divorce, which in India occur in 45% of marriages, is entropy, which he defines as the measure of disorderliness in a system. He argues that because the ‘entropy law’ states that systems always tend to disorder, that to counter this in relationships, pairs tend to become structured towards each other, often making extreme sacrifices, in such a way that freedom tends to be reduced. In this context, Pati postulates that in those who divorce, stress builds, up due to entropy, reaching a tipping point that he calls a volcano effect. [2]

The so-called "divorce season" is said to begin January 02, a day which corresponds to the point in time at which day light hours begin to increase, and hence the point in time when the system begins to be heated more and more each day. [2] A spontaneity table interpretation of this may conclude with the view that this may correspond to a reaction where both ΔH and ΔS are negative where in such situations the “reverse reaction”, in this case bond break up or dissolution, becomes spontaneous at higher temperatures.

References
1. (a) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume One) (divorce, pgs. xviii, 8, 143, 148, 155, 157, 159, 1162-64, 175, 179, 1800, 267, 325; molecular divorce, 162; sour facial expressions, pg. 180; divorce rate, pg. 150; divorce rates and physical attractiveness). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
(b) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume Two) (divorce, 374, 397, 415, 418, 451, 456-57, 496, 506-07, 533, 545, 595, 597). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
2. Pati, Surva P. (2009). “The Thermodynamics of the Human Bond!”, Sep. 09, MentalProjections.Blogspt.com.
3. Is January Wedding Season? – Divorce360.com.

Further reading
● Jordan, Elaine. (1996). “Tennyson, 1857-67: Divorce, Democracy, and Thermodynamics”, in: Tennyson, ed. Rebecca Scott, Longman.

External links
● Divorce – Wikipedia.


Examples of simple chemical single elective affinity reactions (left) and human single elective affinity reactions (right).