Johnson, Eric A. (Author)
The MIT Press
Physical Details: 192 pp.
Language: English
A man and his equation: the anxiety-plagued nineteenth-century physicist who contributed significantly to our understanding of the second law of thermodynamics.Ludwig Boltzmann's grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery bears a cryptic epitaph: S = k log W. This equation was Boltzmann's great discovery, and it contributed significantly to our understanding of the second law of thermodynamics. In Anxiety and the Equation, Eric Johnson tells the story of a man and his equation: the anxiety-plagued nineteenth-century physicist who did his most important work as he struggled with mental illness. Johnson explains that “S” in Boltzmann's equation refers to entropy, and that entropy is the central quantity in the second law of thermodynamics. The second law is always on, running in the background of our lives, providing a way to differentiate between past and future. We know that the future will be a state of higher entropy than the past, and we have Boltzmann to thank for discovering the equation that underlies that fundamental trend. Johnson, accessibly and engagingly, reassembles Boltzmann's equation from its various components and presents episodes from Boltzmann's life―beginning at the end, with “Boltzmann Kills Himself” and “Boltzmann Is Buried (Not Once, But Twice).” Johnson explains the second law in simple terms, introduces key concepts through thought experiments, and explores Boltzmann's work. He argues that Boltzmann, diagnosed by his contemporaries as neurasthenic, suffered from an anxiety disorder. He was, says Johnson, a man of reason who suffered from irrational concerns about his work, worrying especially about opposition from the scientific establishment of the day. Johnson's clear and concise explanations will acquaint the nonspecialist reader with such seemingly esoteric concepts as microstates, macrostates, fluctuations, the distribution of energy, log functions, and equilibrium. He describes Boltzmann's relationships with other scientists, including Max Planck and Henri Poincaré, and, finally, imagines “an alternative ending,” in which Boltzmann lived on and died of natural causes.
...MoreReview Tilman Sauer (2020) Review of "Anxiety and the Equation: Understanding Boltzmann's Entropy". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 192-193).
Review Massimiliano Badino (2019) Review of "Anxiety and the Equation: Understanding Boltzmann's Entropy". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 721-722).
Similar Citations
Article
van Strien, Marij;
(2013)
The Nineteenth Century Conflict between Mechanism and Irreversibility
(/isis/citation/CBB001213355/)
Article
Reiter, Wolfgang L.;
(2007)
In Memoriam Ludwig Boltzmann: A Life of Passion
(/isis/citation/CBB000850200/)
Chapter
Viard, Jérôme;
(2006)
L'élaboration de la signification physique de l'entropie, les contributions de Carnot, Clausius, Boltzmann
(/isis/citation/CBB001024286/)
Article
Wisniak, Jaime;
(2001)
Frederick Thomas Trouton: The Man, the Rule, and the Ratio
(/isis/citation/CBB001252524/)
Book
Kragh, Helge S.;
(2008)
Entropic Creation: Religious Contexts of Thermodynamics and Cosmology
(/isis/citation/CBB000950266/)
Book
Yagi, Eri;
Clausius, Rudolf Julius Emmanuel;
(2002)
A historical approach to entropy: Collected papers of Eri Yagi and her coworkers at the occasion of her retirement
(/isis/citation/CBB000301484/)
Article
Neswald, Elizabeth;
(2009)
Ansätze zu einer Kulturgeschichte der Entropie
(/isis/citation/CBB001023440/)
Book
Hoffmann, Dieter;
(2008)
Max Planck: Die Entstehung der modernen Physik
(/isis/citation/CBB000831692/)
Chapter
Francesco Ghelli;
(2003)
Dalla 'morte termica' al 'rumore bianco'. Lettartura e entropia tra termodinamica, teoria dell'informazione e moderna apocalisse
(/isis/citation/CBB096872924/)
Book
Neswald, Elisabeth R.;
(2006)
Thermodynamik als kultureller Kampfplatz: Zur Faszinationsgeschichteder Entropie, 1850--1915
(/isis/citation/CBB000740241/)
Book
Don S. Lemons;
William R. Shanahan;
Louis J. Buchholtz;
(2022)
On the Trail of Blackbody Radiation: Max Planck and the Physics of his Era
(/isis/citation/CBB808300995/)
Article
Bordoni, Stafano;
(2013)
Routes Towards an Abstract Thermodynamics in the Late Nineteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001320791/)
Article
Campisi, Michele;
(2005)
On the Mechanical Foundations of Thermodynamics: The Generalized Helmholtz Theorem
(/isis/citation/CBB000771640/)
Article
Badino, M.;
(2011)
Mechanistic Slumber vs. Statistical Insomnia: The Early History of Boltzmann's H-Theorem (1868--1877)
(/isis/citation/CBB001251950/)
Book
Hoffmann, Dieter;
(2010)
Max Planck und die moderne Physik
(/isis/citation/CBB001024503/)
Book
Badino, Massimiliano;
(2010)
Il professore e il suo demone: La lunga lotta di Max Planck contro la statistica (1896--1906)
(/isis/citation/CBB001252424/)
Article
Brown, Harvey R.;
Myrvold, Wayne;
Uffink, Jos;
(2009)
Boltzmann's H-Theorem, Its Discontents, and the Birth of Statistical Mechanics
(/isis/citation/CBB000933693/)
Book
Olivier Darrigol;
(2018)
Atoms, Mechanics, and Probability: Ludwig Boltzmann's Statistico-Mechanical Writings - An Exegesis
(/isis/citation/CBB560149274/)
Article
Deltete, Robert J.;
(2012)
Planck, Ostwald, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
(/isis/citation/CBB001232112/)
Article
Ridderbos, Katinka;
(2002)
The Coarse-Graining Approach to Statistical Mechanics: How Blissful Is Our Ignorance?
(/isis/citation/CBB000201192/)
Be the first to comment!