Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics

by Josiah Willard Gibbs

Book Overview

Written by J. Willard Gibbs, the most distinguished American mathematical physicist of the nineteenth century, this book was the first to bring together and arrange in logical order the works of Clausius, Maxwell, Boltzmann, and Gibbs himself. The lucid, advanced-level text remains a valuable collection of fundamental equations and principles. Topics include the general problem and the fundamental equation of statistical mechanics, the canonical distribution of the average energy values in a canonical ensemble of systems, and formulas for evaluating important functions of the energies of a system. Additional discussions cover maximum and minimal properties of distribution in phase, a valuable comparison of statistical mechanics with thermodynamics, and many other subjects.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486789950
• ISBN13: 9780486789958
• Release Date: December 2014
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The orange and black Scholar Select version was inexcusably poorly printed.

Of course you should read the book; just get a different version. The portion of a page with printing takes up only half of the width and 2/3 of the height of a page. Rather than typesetting the book, the publisher took pictures of a university of California library copy of the book. "As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc" Yeah right, they did it to save money.