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"A musician can recognize the music of Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert after hearing a few syllables. Similarly, a mathematician or physicist can recognize the work of Cauchy, Gauss, Jacobi, Helmholtz or Kirchhoff after reading a few pages."

Ludwig Boltzmann

The world seems unfair to everyone. This is a story about people who have been hurt by the world, and his contribution has revolutionized several branches of physics.

He is known mainly for establishing statistical mechanics and proposing a statistical explanation of the second law of thermodynamics. He was one of the most important supporters of atomism at that time, although there was still a lot of debate about atomism at that time.

In his early life in 1844, on the night between Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent), physicist and philosopher Ludwig Boltzmann (Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann) was born in Vienna, Austria. He used to joke that the date of his birth was the reason for the mood swings that accompanied him from a purely happy time to a terrible stage of depression.

Boltzmann began his scientific career in 1863 at the age of 19 as a student in the Department of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Vienna. He is in Joseph. Josef Stefan received his doctorate under the guidance of Stepan, whose doctoral thesis is on the theory of gas dynamics. Just three years later, Boltzmann, 25, became a full-time professor of mathematical physics at Gratz University on Stepan's recommendation.

Boltzmann is not a man of his own business. he keeps moving from one job to another. After leaving the University of Gratz, he joined the University of Vienna as a professor of mathematics in 1873. After working there for three years, he returned to Gratz as a professor of experimental physics. In 1887, he went to Berlin to become a professor of theoretical physics, but then he changed his mind. In 1890, he was a professor of theoretical physics in Munich, Germany. In 1894, he returned to Vienna as a professor. Then in 1900 he went to Leipzig. According to his students, he is an outstanding teacher and is highly respected by the scientific community.

Boltzmann, the scientific contribution, was one of the first people to realize that Maxwell unified electromagnetism. In 1871, he derived the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, a formula used to describe the velocity distribution of particles. Particles move freely in a container and they only collide with the walls of the container. The energy of these particles eventually follows Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics.

In the early 1970s, he used atomic theory to express the second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics says that "as an isolated system, the entropy of the universe will always increase." He interpreted this law as a statistical law, which can be deduced from the principle of mechanics.

He developed most of the structures of statistical mechanics, and the baton was later handed over to Josiah Willard Josiah Willard Gibbs. Boltzmann proposed the famous entropy formula-the bridge between statistical mechanics and thermodynamics between 1872 and 1875, which was revised by Max Planck in 1900.

The entropy formula Boltzmann generalizes the blackbody radiation theory based on Stepan's law. In addition, he also carried out in-depth calculations in the field of gas dynamics, so that it can be used to study interstellar gases, stellar clusters and non-relativistic plasmas.

"exactly, thermodynamics doesn't just allow Darwinian evolution to happen; it just tends to let it happen."

Ludwig Boltzmann

Philosophical contribution when Boltzmann returned to Vienna, he served as two more professors, one as a professor of theoretical physics and the other as a professor of philosophy of science. He teaches the methods and General theories of Natural Science in the course of Natural philosophy, which was previously taught by Ernst Mach.

At that time, his class was so popular that even the largest classroom could not accommodate so many attendees. The students, assistant professors and professors standing all the way to the bottom of the stairs. Boltzmann also received blessings from the emperor and received a great deal of recognition.

Boltzmann is an evolutionist, not only because Darwin put forward a strong theory for the most important field of science, but also because he believes that Darwin's method is the key to understanding whether scientific theory is true or not.

Darwin (left) and Boltzmann (right) for Boltzmann, his science and his philosophy are a whole. In fact, he is looking forward to breaking down the barriers between the two areas. He thinks that the combination of the two can solve many practical problems.

The argument with Ostwald and Mach Boltzmann's work on statistical mechanics was strongly criticized by William Ostwald (Wilhelm Ostwald), who insisted that physics was energetic.

Ostwald, one of the founders of physical chemistry, was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1895 for his outstanding contributions to the role of catalysts, chemical equilibrium and chemical reaction rate in 1909. Ostwald presented a paper at a scientific conference in which he asserted: "the irreversibility of natural phenomena proves that there are processes that cannot be described by mechanical equations." Scientific materialism is established. "

Arnold Sommerfeld, who attended the meeting, described the debate between Boltzmann and Ostwald as "... Boltzman was supported by Felix Klein. The battle between Boltzman and Ostwald was similar to that between the bull and the matador. However, the bull won this time." Boltzmann's argument was supported. We, the young mathematicians at that time, we all sided with Boltzmann. "he said.

Ostwald and many European scientists could not understand Boltzmann's logic that the universe followed statistics, which led to voices against him.

Boltzmann even gave up his job in Vienna because Mach was a professor of the history of philosophy and natural science there-he was never polite to Mach. Boltzmann's idea was later supported by atomic physics discoveries that began shortly before 1900, such as Brownian motion (the random motion of particles suspended in a fluid), which can only be explained by statistical mechanics.

In 1909, Ostwald finally admitted that he was wrong, while Mach never gave in. If Boltzmann had lived a few more years, he would have seen the real victory of his efforts, and his work was subsequently verified by experiments.

"state the fact, state it clearly, and defend it to the end of your life."

Ludwig Boltzmann

Personal quality in historical reports and records, everyone who has met Boltzmann claims that he is a great man. Although there are many scientific and philosophical arguments, he gets on well with his opponents.

Boltzmann is a great teacher and maintains a good teacher-student relationship with his students. He once invited some of his clever students to his home. He never evaluates his students on the basis of physical knowledge, but on the basis of general personality traits.

Music and art also play an important role in his life. He is an outstanding pianist. He also has an unparalleled sense of humor.

At the end of his life, Boltzmann spent most of his life defending his theory, but attacks on his work continued, and he began to feel that his life's efforts were going to be a complete failure. Coupled with the deterioration of his physical condition and constant disputes with his scientific opponents, he became mentally unstable. There is a fictional story that the lack of academic recognition plunged him into depression.

He committed suicide in Trieste in 1906 at the age of 62 while she was on vacation with her wife and daughter. He hanged himself while his wife and daughter were swimming in the swimming pool. However, the cause of his suicide has always been attributed to the fact that his ideas are not widely accepted, and we will never know the real cause of his severe depression.

Boltzmann's tombstone is engraved with his famous entropy formula to commemorate his glory.

Boltzmann's tombstone original link:

Https://www.cantorsparadise.com/a-tale-of-genius-with-tragedy-ludwig-boltzmann-92c6a51dd387

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ID:cas-iop), author: Areeba Merriam, translator: Nothing, revision: Dannis

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