Ludwig Boltzmann

The Man Who Trusted Atoms

By: Carlo Cercignani, Roger Penrose (Foreword by)

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Paperback | 1 February 2006

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350 Pages

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23.39 x 15.6 x 1.85

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This book presents the life and personality, the scientific and philosophical work of Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the great scientists who marked the passage from 19th- to 20th-Century physics. His rich and tragic life, ending by suicide at the age of 62, is described in detail. A substantial part of the book is devoted to discussing his scientific and philosophical ideas and placing them in the context of the second half of the 19th century. The fact that Boltzmann was the man who did most to establish that there is a microscopic, atomic structure underlying macroscopic bodies is documented, as is Boltzmann's influence on modern physics, especially through the work of Planck on light quanta and of Einstein on Brownian motion. Boltzmann was the centre of a scientific upheaval, and he has been proved right on many crucial issues. He anticipated Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions and proposed a theory of knowledge based on Darwin. His basic results, when properly understood, can also be stated as mathematical theorems. Some of these have been proved: others are still at the level of likely but unproven conjectures. The main text of this biography is written almost entirely without equations. Mathematical appendices deepen knowledge of some technical aspects of the subject.

Industry Reviews

`It is valuable, not only for the wealth and scope of information it provides, but for offering an up-to-date view, accessible to all, of Boltzmann's scientific ideas.' Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics `Carlo Cercignani has made an important contribution to our understanding of the man and his work in the context of his times... Much of the book will be interesting for the general reader.' George Fleck, The Chemical Intelligencer `I can warmly recommend the book to everybody who is interested in the history of science.' Dieter Flamm, Physics World

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