Stats for nerds
2recommend
11mentions
10people
2008–2026years
18% recommend82% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- My favorite course I took as part of my physics degree was statistical mechanics. It leaned way closer to information theory than I would have expected going in, but in retrospect should have been obvious.
Unrelated: my favorite bit from any physics book is probably still the introduction of the first chapter of "States of Matter" by David Goodstein: "Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics."
- I have to take this opportunity to recite the opening passage of the introduction to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics in David L. Goodstein’s «States of Matter» from 1985:
“Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics.”
- Not quite an abstract, but most memorable: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/meta.12599
There's also the infamous opening paragraph to the "States of Matter" textbook by David L. Goodstein:
Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics.
- One of the boldest chapter one introductions I've ever seen comes to mind:
- "States of Matter", David L. Goodstein, https://archive.org/details/statesofmatter0000good_e2n5/page...Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics. - This is awesome. Also, this quote feels relevant: "Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics." - David Goodstein's States of Matter, Introduction
- That's from Goodstein's "States of Matter" [1]. The next paragraph starts "Perhaps it will be wise to approach the subject cautiously".
That appears to be sufficient to allow non-fatal studying of statistical mechanics. Goodstein wrote that book 49 years ago and didn't die until a few months ago at the age of 85.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/States-Matter-Dover-Books-Physics/dp/...
