Most studies of the excitation of molecular vibrations in gas mixtures have been carried out using very low concentrations of theBtype ``impurity'' gas to excite basic gasA.It is pointed out in this paper that such studies very likely fail to detect the possible importance of triple collisions of theAABtype. Indeed, data of Eucken and Aybar on mixtures containing quite high concentrations ofBmolecules is felt to furnish strong evidence for the triple collision excitation of COS molecules by argon and by nitrogen molecules.
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