Abstract
IT seems to me that my meaning has not been expressed quite clearly; therefore, it may be worth while to add one remark. Not for every curve, but only for the particular form of the H-curve, disymmetrical in the upward and downward direction, can it be proved that H has a tendency to decrease. This particular form is very well illustrated by Mr. Culverwell's suggestion of an inverted tree. The H-curve is composed of a succession of such trees. Almost all these trees are extremely low, and have branches very nearly horizontal. Here H has nearly the minimum value. Only very few trees are higher, and have branches inclined to the axis of abscissæ, and the improbability of such a tree increases enormously with its height. The difficulty consists only in imagining all these branches infinitely short.
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BOLTZMANN, L. Professor Boltzmann's Letter on the Kinetic Theory of Gases. Nature 51, 581 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051581b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051581b0
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