polymerizations a linear increase of the number average molecular weight m n with time was observed as shown in table 1 and fig1 table 1 shows the weight average molecular weight m w and the number average molecular weight m w as a function of time for ethylene homo polymerization l i pr 2 ni ch 2 ph pme 3 about 0 34 mm ni cod 2 about 0 85 mm about 100 psi ethylene pressure and about 20 u00b0 c temperature consistent with being a quasi living polymerization system narrow molecular weight distributions m w m n in the range of about 1 3 1 6 were observed in all cases see table 1 a living system has a number of active sites which equals the number of polymer chains an estimate of the molecular weight of the polymer chains was obtained according to the calculations shown in table 2 below for example the 4 th sample entry of table 2 shows the total amount of ethylene consumed was about 1222 standard cubic cm sec which equals about 1 527 g 0 055 moles of ethylene 1 sec 1 25 u00d7 10 u2212 3 g of ethylene at stp stp is standard temperature and pressure i e 0 c and 760 mm of mercury 1 01 kpa the l i pr 2 ni ch 2 ph pme 3 loading was.