Ludwig Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (German pronunciation: [ˈluːtvɪç ˈbɔlt͡sman]; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1877 he provided the current definition of entropy, , where Ω is the number of microstates whose energy equals the system's energy, interpreted as a measure of the statistical disorder of a system.[2] Max Planck named the constant kB the Boltzmann constant.[3]
"Boltzmann" redirects here. For other uses, see Boltzmann (disambiguation).
Ludwig Boltzmann
5 September 1906 (aged 62)
University of Vienna (PhD, 1866; Dr. habil., 1869)
- Statistical mechanics
- Boltzmann brain
- Boltzmann's entropy formula
- Boltzmann constant
- Boltzmann equation
- Boltzmann distribution
- Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution
- Stefan–Boltzmann constant
- Stefan–Boltzmann law
- Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics
- Boltzmann–Matano analysis
- Boltzmann factor
- Boltzmann relation
- Canonical ensemble
- Detailed balance
- Epistemological idealism
- Ergodic hypothesis
- Equipartition theorem
- H-theorem
- Materials with memory
- Microscopic reversibility
- Phase space
- Softmax function
Statistical mechanics is one of the pillars of modern physics. It describes how macroscopic observations (such as temperature and pressure) are related to microscopic parameters that fluctuate around an average. It connects thermodynamic quantities (such as heat capacity) to microscopic behavior, whereas, in classical thermodynamics, the only available option would be to measure and tabulate such quantities for various materials.[4]
Biography[edit]
Childhood and education[edit]
Boltzmann was born in Erdberg, a suburb of Vienna into a Catholic family. His father, Ludwig Georg Boltzmann, was a revenue official. His grandfather, who had moved to Vienna from Berlin, was a clock manufacturer, and Boltzmann's mother, Katharina Pauernfeind, was originally from Salzburg. Boltzmann was home-schooled until the age of ten,[5] and then attended high school in Linz, Upper Austria. When Boltzmann was 15, his father died.[6]
Starting in 1863, Boltzmann studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna. He received his doctorate in 1866 and his venia legendi in 1869. Boltzmann worked closely with Josef Stefan, director of the institute of physics. It was Stefan who introduced Boltzmann to Maxwell's work.[6]
Academic career[edit]
In 1869 at age 25, thanks to a letter of recommendation written by Josef Stefan,[7] Boltzmann was appointed full Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Graz in the province of Styria. In 1869 he spent several months in Heidelberg working with Robert Bunsen and Leo Königsberger and in 1871 with Gustav Kirchhoff and Hermann von Helmholtz in Berlin. In 1873 Boltzmann joined the University of Vienna as Professor of Mathematics and there he stayed until 1876.
Philosophy[edit]
Boltzmann's kinetic theory of gases seemed to presuppose the reality of atoms and molecules, but almost all German philosophers and many scientists like Ernst Mach and the physical chemist Wilhelm Ostwald disbelieved their existence.[19] Boltzmann was exposed to molecular theory by the paper of atomist James Clerk Maxwell entitled "Illustrations of the Dynamical Theory of Gases" which described temperature as dependent on the speed of the molecules thereby introducing statistics into physics. This inspired Boltzmann to embrace atomism and extend the theory.[20]
Boltzmann wrote treatises on philosophy such as "On the question of the objective existence of processes in inanimate nature" (1897). He was a realist.[21] In his work "On Thesis of Schopenhauer's", Boltzmann refers to his philosophy as "materialism" and says further: "Idealism asserts that only the ego exists, the various ideas, and seeks to explain matter from them. Materialism starts from the existence of matter and seeks to explain sensations from it."[22]
Awards and honours[edit]
In 1885 he became a member of the Imperial Austrian Academy of Sciences and in 1887 he became the President of the University of Graz. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1888 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1899.[1] Numerous things are named in his honour.