Difference between revisions of "Statistical Physics"
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| − | + | * From the time of Gauss probability was used in experimental physics to estimate error bound in experiments. | |
| − | From the time of Gauss probability was used in | ||
But the assumption was that the underlying physical laws were absolute and admitted to no variability. | But the assumption was that the underlying physical laws were absolute and admitted to no variability. | ||
| + | * Bernoulli, Clausius and Maxwell developed the idea that motions of atoms in a gas could be used to explain heat and the idea of entropy which can never decrease in closed systems. | ||
==Boltzmann== | ==Boltzmann== | ||
Revision as of 17:09, 4 June 2023
Full Title
Context
- From the time of Gauss probability was used in experimental physics to estimate error bound in experiments.
But the assumption was that the underlying physical laws were absolute and admitted to no variability.
- Bernoulli, Clausius and Maxwell developed the idea that motions of atoms in a gas could be used to explain heat and the idea of entropy which can never decrease in closed systems.
Boltzmann
Planck
From the beginning of Boltzmann's statistical approach Planck, among many others, rejected the approach.
Consequences
Statistical analysis become necessary when dealing with particles that were too numerous to track individually. It turns out the the very success of Newtonian physics and the calculus was to assume that differences could be made small enough that calculations could be easily performed. When the reality of particles that were not continuous because part of the study of physics, then Statistical Physics became necessary. We find that in Quantum Mechanics probability and statistics becomes the only way to make any sort of predictions at all. Richard Feynman that his to say about the uncertainty implicit in a statistical approach. "The uncertainty principle “protects” quantum mechanics. Heisenberg recognized that if it were possible to measure the momentum and the position simultaneously with a greater accuracy, the quantum mechanics would collapse. So he proposed that it must be impossible. Then people sat down and tried to figure out ways of doing it, and nobody could figure out a way to measure the position and the momentum of anything—a screen, an electron, a billiard ball, anything—with any greater accuracy. Quantum mechanics maintains its perilous but still correct existence."[1]
References
- ↑ Richard Feynman Quantum Behavior (1965) https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/III_01.html
