Talk:Statistical mechanics

List of statistical mechanics articles was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 8 May 2024 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Statistical mechanics. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Statistical mechanics article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1: 12 months

Physics Top‑importance

	Physics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Physics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Physics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PhysicsWikipedia:WikiProject PhysicsTemplate:WikiProject Physicsphysics
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Mathematics High‑priority

	Mathematics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mathematics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of mathematics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MathematicsWikipedia:WikiProject MathematicsTemplate:WikiProject Mathematicsmathematics
High	This article has been rated as High-priority on the project's priority scale.

Out-of-place quotation ?

"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 L. Goodman "States of Matter"

It is a little weird to start an article with a quotation, like that. — Miguel 07:33, 2004 May 28 (UTC)

I know, but it is such a great quote from a standard reference, I thought it was worth including. Michael L. Kaufman 22:29, May 28, 2004 (UTC)

It is pretty interesting, maybe inclusion at the end of the article. Edsanville 05:40, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Link

Perhaps the page should link to Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution (AC)

Structure of statistical mechanics articles

I'd like to make some more contributions to the Stat. Mech. subject, so I was trying to figure out the present structure. I've made up the following "summary" and I suppose it ought to go on the Stat. Mech. page, but I don't know where. Any suggestions or modifications? Paul Reiser 21:32, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

	Maxwell Boltzmann	Bose-Einstein	Fermi-Dirac
Particle		Boson	Fermion
Statistics	Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics Derivation of the partition function Gibbs paradox	Bose-Einstein statistics	Fermi-Dirac statistics
Gas	Ideal gas	Bose gas Bose-Einstein condensate Planck's law of black body radiation	Fermi gas Fermion condensate

General:

Absurd!

The article's lead claims statistical mechanics "does not assume or postulate any natural laws"!!!! No? Conservation of momentum? Conservation of Energy? Continuity? I don't understand how such a preposterous claim could be inserted in what should be a science-based article. Here's a hint: any study of ensembles of "microscopic entities" (Really?? "entities"??? more rubbish!) must differentiate the "entities" from "non-entities". That is, by definition, an assumption, as is their continued existence. That is, the subject's subject must be assumed to exist. 98.21.215.110 (talk) 15:57, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I deleted the second sentence since it was a summary of any article content. Johnjbarton (talk) 16:11, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Index of statistical mechanics articles" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Index of statistical mechanics articles has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 February 13 § Index of statistical mechanics articles until a consensus is reached. Hey man im josh (talk) 17:58, 13 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]