It’s pretty late in the night, and I’m still working my way through several statistical mechanics homework problems. This reminded me of one of the funniest (and most depressing) paragraphs that I’ve ever found in a physics textbook.
Without further ado, I give you the first paragraph of page 1 of chapter 1 of David Goodstein’s book “States of matter”
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. Perhaps it will be wise to approach the subject cautiously…David Goodstein (States of Matter)
Isn’t that a great intro? I’ll be back soon with something more enthusiastic to say about physics!
