Abstract
IN working over Dr. Watson's proof of Boltzmann's H-theorem (Watson, “Kinetic Theory of Gases,” second edition, p. 43), it appeared that, probably through a slip, the reasoning given depends on an assumption palpably absurd, i.e. that the function whose vanishing defines the beginning or end of an encounter between a molecule belonging to a set with m degrees of freedom and one belonging to another set with n degrees of freedom is a function of the coordinates of the last molecule only, the one belonging to the n set. For while he takes the number of molecules of the set whose momenta and coordinates lie between as he also takes as the condition of encounters between those molecules and others from a set whose coordinates are
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CULVERWELL, E. Dr. Watson's Proof of Boltzmann's Theorem on Permanence of Distributions. Nature 50, 617 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/050617c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/050617c0
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