Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics [Hardcover]

J. Willard Gibbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1981 | ISBN-10: 0918024196 | ISBN-13: 978-0918024190

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Ox Bow Pr (June 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0918024196
• ISBN-13: 978-0918024190
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,221,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Still Worth Reading, March 21, 2010

By 

Jason Dowd "a reader" (Lost in Thought) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics (Paperback)

Published in 1901, this is a seminal work in statistical mechanics that sat the stage for all later development of the subject.

It is not easy to read for several reasons.

First, the typesetting has been taken from the original 1901 plates which have not worn well in some places. The printing itself is of high quality, but as the typeface is rather small and very small for footnotes, some characters are very hard to make out.

Second, Gibbs, being a product of the nineteenth century, has a tendency towards the grandiloquent and the use of sentences that are overly long.

Third, Gibbs' approach with classical mechanics and mathematical notation, particularly with respect to partial derivatives, is dated.

Finally, the subject matter is rather challenging in and of itself.

Nonetheless, it is quite nice to actually read the words of the master for one's self. This book is referred to so often in later works that reading it is almost a necessity for the serious student of the subject at some point.

Essentially, this book is a deep, probing, and very logically constructed look at canonical ensembles. Indeed, this is the book where canonical ensembles were defined in the first place. Naturally, the treatment is completely classical as quantum mechanics didn't even exist when this book was written.

It is quite interesting to see the justification that Gibbs provides for introducing the law of canonical distribution, namely that it is simple and leads to strong analogies with thermodynamics. That is, Gibbs does not in any way attempt to justify it on the basis of classical mechanics itself.

The interested student should have a strong background in classical mechanics, particularly Hamilton's formulation, and thermodynamics, and should definitely not be trying to learn statistical mechanics for the first time.

Still valuable and thought provoking, but not absolutely essential.