This paper is a preliminary exploration of the connections between the statistical style of reasoning and the research practices of statistical mechanics in the early period of the long quantum revolution. It suggests that before 1925 the instantiations of the statistical style in physics went through two phases. The first phase consisted of the formulation of the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics on the basis of the population-gas analogy. The second phase was characterized by the generalization of the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics through analogies between ideal gas molecules and other microphysical entities, analogies that shaped and were shaped by the rise of quantum theory. Einstein's invention of the Bose-Einstein statistics started a third phase and created the conditions of possibility for a new classification of microphysical entities according to their different statistics.
...MoreArticle Christian Joas; Thiago Hartz (2019) Quantum Cultures: Historical Perspectives on the Practices of Quantum Physicists. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (pp. 281-289).
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Studia Historiae Scientiarum
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Revue d'Histoire des Sciences
Philosophy of Science
Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
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