Boltzmann's H-Theorem
Abstract
WHEN Boltzmann first published the celebrated theorem now generally known as the H-theorem, he used the symbol E (presumably as the first letter of entropy), not H. It has been suggested that when H was first used for this theorem it was intended to be the capital Greek letter eta: but the first paper known to me in which H is used for Boltzmann's entropy function is one by Burbury1, who seems to have changed Boltzmann's symbol E to H for no special reason; later Burbury used B for an almost identical function, which he called Boltzmann's minimum function2. Boltzmann himself wrote E so late as 18933, but in 18954 he used the letter H. This use of H must have seemed mysterious to many generations of students, and it would be interesting to know whether any reader can account for its use or give an earlier instance of it.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- May 1937
- DOI:
- 10.1038/139931a0
- Bibcode:
- 1937Natur.139..931C