Dr Faustus of Modern Physics - Department of Speech, Music and ...

Chapter 34
Statistics: Boltzmann
34.1 Maxwell
• By the study of Boltzmann I have been unable to understand him. He
could not understand me because of my shortness, and his length was
and is a stumbling blck to me.
34.2 Schrödinger
• Bolttzmann’ circle of ideas may be aclled my first love in science. No
other has thus enraptured me or will ever do so again
34.3 Einstein
• Neither Herr Boltzmann nor Herr Planck has given a definition of W...
Usually W is put equal to the number of complexions. In order to
calculate W, one needs a complete (molecular-mechanical) theory of
the system under consideration. Therefore it is dubious whether the
Boltzmann principle has any meaning without a complete molecularmechanical
theory or some other theory which describes the elementary
processes (and such a theory is missing).
• Boltzmann’s work is not easy to read. There are great physicists who
have not understood it (e.g. Bohr).
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