Formal Sciences & Matter / Physics

Statistical Mechanics

Maxwell, Boltzmann and Gibbs derive heat, pressure and entropy from the statistics of countless atoms (1860-1902).

Maxwell's velocity distribution for gas molecules (1860) and Boltzmann's statistical entropy (1877, S = k log W) explained temperature and the arrow of time as probabilities of atomic arrangements. Gibbs turned the method into a general framework in 1902. Planck's quantum hypothesis grew out of Boltzmann's way of counting, and the same mathematics now describes magnets, alloys and the entropy of information.