Ludwig Boltzmann: The Man Who Trusted Atoms
Ludwig Boltzmann: The Man Who Trusted Atoms
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Abstract
This book looks at the life and personality, the scientific and philosophical work of Ludwig Boltzmann, an Austrian physicist who made significant contributions to the development of the atomic theory. His tragic life, which ended in a suicide, is described in detail. A substantial part of the book is devoted to discussing his work establishing the atomic structure of matter, and his influence on modern physics. Boltzmann stands as a link between two other great theoretical physicists: James Clerk Maxwell in the 19th century and Albert Einstein in the 20th. Maxwell, who is best known for his discovery of the laws governing electric and magnetic fields and light, first found the formula for the probability distribution of velocities of particles in a gas in equilibrium, but it was Boltzmann who derived the equation governing the dynamical evolution of the probability distribution, according to which the state of a gas, not necessarily in equilibrium, will actually change. Boltzmann's ideas were central to Max Planck's later analysis of black-body radiation at the turn of the century, in which he introduced the quantum of action, thereby firing the opening shot of the quantum revolution. In 1905, Einstein not only picked up on this idea and developed it further (in effect showing that the ‘atomic hypothesis’ applied even to light itself) but was also influenced by Boltzmann's concepts in two of his other famous papers of 1905, one in which he provided a method of determining molecular dimensions and the other in which he explained the nature of Brownian motion.
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Front Matter
- Introduction
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1
A short biography of Ludwig Boltzmann
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2
Physics before Boltzmann
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3
Kinetic theory before Boltzmann
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4
The Boltzmann equation
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5
Time irreversibility and the H-theorem
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6
Boltzmann’s relation and the statistical interpretation of entropy
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7
Boltzmann, Gibbs, and equilibrium statistical mechanics
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8
The problem of polyatomic molecules
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9
Boltzmann’s contributions to other branches of physics
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10
Boltzmann as a philosopher
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11
Boltzmann and his contemporaries
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12
The influence of Boltzmann’s ideas on the science and technology of the twentieth century
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End Matter
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