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Anxiety and the Equation - Understanding Boltzmann's Entropy (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R433
Discovery Miles 4 330
You Save: R142
(25%)
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Anxiety and the Equation - Understanding Boltzmann's Entropy (Hardcover)
Series: Anxiety and the Equation
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List price R575
Loot Price R433
Discovery Miles 4 330
You Save R142 (25%)
Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.
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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 Poincare, and, finally,
imagines "an alternative ending," in which Boltzmann lived on and
died of natural causes.
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