Statistical Mechanics

Statistical mechanics is a sub-branch of physics that attempts to predict and explain the behavior of a macroscopic system based on the behavior and properties of that system’s microscopic elements. It uses the principles of statistics and probability, found within mathematics, to describe particles (microscopic elements) acted on by forces, thus, implying motions.

The number of these microscopic elements is usually very large, and it is impossible to accurately predict the behavior of each of these elements as they interact. However, the large number of interactions makes it theoretically possible for statistical mechanics to predict the behavior of the system as a whole.

Scottish-English physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879), Italian mathematician and physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906), and American mathematical physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) are considered the first scientists to have developed the concepts within statistical mechanics. Each physicist conjectured that matter was composed of very small particles that were always in motion. They were unable to deal with these atoms and molecules individually so decided to group them together. They averaged the dynamic microscopic properties of the individual particles with statistical techniques; thus, developing a macroscopic measure of the group’s thermodynamic characteristics. Consequently, statistical mechanics was able to explain thermodynamics with the use of statistics and mechanics.

Later, in the early part of the twentieth century, statistical mechanics incorporated quantum theory when German physicist Maxwell Planck (1858–1947) proposed that atoms absorb or emit electromagnetic radiation in bundles of energy termed “quanta.” Later, physicists Niels Bohr (1885–1962), J.J. Thomson (1856–1940), and Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) studied Planck’s quantum theory of radiation and improved on Planck’s quantum theory.

Today, statistical mechanics uses the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics to describe the behavior of a group of classical particles. When describing quantum particles (fermions and bosons), statistical mechanics uses Fermi-Dirac statistics, when working with fermions, and Bose-Einstein statistics, when operating with bosons. Scientists apply the spectroscopic data of individual molecules when calculating, with the use of statistical mechanics, the thermodynamic properties of materials.

statistical mechanics Branch of physics that studies large-scale properties of matter based on the statistical laws of large numbers. The large number of molecules in such a system allows the use of statistics to predict the probability of finding the system in any state. The entropy (disorder or randomness) of the system relates to its number of possible states; a system left to itself will tend to approach the most probable distribution of energy states. See also thermodynamics

Statistical mechanics

Statistical mechanics is a sub-branch of physics that attempts to explain the behavior of a macroscopic system based on the behavior and properties of that system's microscopic elements.

The number of these microscopic elements is usually very large, and it is impossible to accurately predict the behavior of each of these elements as they interact. However, the large number of interactions makes it theoretically possible for statistical mechanics to predict the behavior of the system as a whole.