The kinetics of the oxidation process is broken down into eleven fundamental factors. These are: (1) time; (2) temperature; (3) pressure; (4) surface preparation and passivation treatments; (5) gas in the metal lattice; (6) surface area; (7) crystal orientation; (8) gas flow; (9) cycle oxidation; (10) vacuum effect; and (11) stability of the oxide film. Rate experiments on the metals aluminum, magnesium, tungsten, molybdenum and iron and the alloy 18sol;8 stainless steel are used to illustrate the effect of the various variables. The metals and alloys are found to follow the parabolic rate law over a certain time and temperature range. Deviations are found for higher temperatures. These deviations are found to be independent of film thickness, surface preparation and pressure. The transition rate theory of gas metal reactions is applied to compare the oxidation behavior of each metal. The energies of activation vary from 22,600 calories/mol for iron to 45,650 calories/mol for tungsten. The entropies of activation vary from —28.7 for 18sol;8 stainless steel to 11.2 for tungsten. The entropy of activation is a measure of the frequency factor or the probability of reaction for a definite energy of activation. The oxidation rate is interpreted from this point of view. The influence of the other variables are presented and briefly discussed.