Publication Type
Book Chapter
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
11-2020
Abstract
This article highlights and discusses the Ehrenfests’ use of toy models to explore irreversibility in statistical mechanics. In particular, we explore their urn and P–Q models and highlight that, while the former was primarily used to provide a simple counter-example to Zermelo’s objection to Boltzmann’s statistical mechanical underpinning of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the latter was intended to highlight the role and importance of the Stoßzahlansatz as a cause of the tendency of systems to exhibit entropy increase. We also explain the sense in which these models are toy models and why agents can use them, as the Ehrenfests’ did, to carry out this important work, despite the fact that they do not represent any real system.
Discipline
Philosophy | Philosophy of Science
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
The legacy of Tatjana Afanassjewa
Editor
J. Uffink, G. Valente, C. Werndl, & L. Zuchowski
First Page
121
Last Page
137
ISBN
9783030479701
Identifier
10.1007/978-3-030-47971-8_6
Publisher
Springer
City or Country
Cham
Citation
LUCZAK, Joshua, & ZUCHOWSKI, Lena. (2020). The Ehrenfests’ use of toy models to explore irreversibility in statistical mechanics. In The legacy of Tatjana Afanassjewa (pp. 121-137). Cham: Springer.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3394
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47971-8_6