where represents the distribution function of single-particle position and momentum at a given time (see the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution), is a force, is the mass of a particle, is the time and is an average velocity of particles.

Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (February 20, 1844 – September 5, 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher whose greatest achievement was in the development of statistical mechanics, which explains and predicts how the properties of atoms (such as mass, charge, and structure) determine the physical properties of matter (such as viscosity, thermal conductivity, and diffusion).
Boltzmann was born in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire. His father, Ludwig Georg Boltzmann, was a revenue official. His grandfather, who had moved to Vienna from Berlin, was a clock manufacturer, and Boltzmann's mother, Katharina Pauernfeind, was originally from Salzburg. He received his primary education from a private tutor at the home of his parents. Boltzmann attended high school in Linz, Upper Austria. When Boltzmann was 15 his father died.
Boltzmann studied physics at the University of Vienna, starting in 1863. Among his teachers were Josef Loschmidt, Joseph Stefan, Andreas von Ettingshausen and Jozef Petzval. Boltzmann received his PhD degree in 1866 working under the supervision of Stefan; his dissertation was on kinetic theory of gases. In 1867 he became a Privatdozent (lecturer). After obtaining his doctorate degree, Boltzmann worked two more years as Stefan's assistant. It was Stefan who introduced Boltzmann to Maxwell's work

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Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906)
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Entropy and disorder The statistical interpretation of thermodynamics was pioneered by James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) and brought to fruition by the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann.

Willard Gibbs,*in full Josiah Willard Gibbs* *(born February 11, 1839,*New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.—died April 28, 1903,*New Haven),*theoretical physicist and chemist who was one of the greatest scientists in the United States in the 19th century. His application of thermodynamic theory converted a large part of physical chemistry from an empirical into a deductive science.

Gibbs was the fourth child and only son of Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr., professor of sacred literature at Yale University. There were college presidents among his ancestors and scientific ability in his mother’s family. Facially and mentally, Gibbs resembled his mother. He was a friendly youth but was also withdrawn and intellectually absorbed. This circumstance and his delicate health kept him from participating much in student and social life. He was educated at the local Hopkins Grammar School and in 1854 entered Yale, where he won a succession of prizes. After graduating, Gibbs pursued research in engineering. His thesis on the design of gearing was distinguished by the logical rigour with which he employed geometrical methods of analysis. In 1863 Gibbs received the first doctorate of engineering to be conferred in the United States. He was appointed a tutor at Yale in the same year. He devoted some attention to engineering invention.

Gibbs lost his parents rather early, and he and his two older sisters inherited the family home and a modest fortune. In 1866 they went to Europe, remaining there nearly three years while Gibbs attended the lectures of European masters of mathematics and physics, whose intellectual technique he assimilated. He returned more a European than an American scientist in spirit—one of the reasons why general recognition in his native country came so slowly. He applied his increasing command of theory to the improvement of James Watt’s steam-engine governor. In analyzing its equilibrium, he began to develop the method by which the equilibriums of chemical processes could be calculated

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Gibbs was the only son among the five children of Josiah Willard Gibbs and Mary Anna Van Cleve Gibbs. His father was a noted philologist, a graduate of Yale and professor of sacred literature there from 1826 until his death in 1861. The younger Gibbs grew up in New Haven and graduated from Yale College in 1858, having won a number of prizes in both Latin and mathematics. He continued at Yale as a student of engineering in the new graduate school, and in 1863 he received one of the first Ph.D. degrees granted in the United States. After serving as a tutor in Yale College for three years, giving elementary instruction in Latin and natural philosophy, Gibbs left New Haven for further study in Europe. By this time both his parents and two of his sisters were dead, and Gibbs traveled with his two surviving older sisters, Anna and Julia. He spent a year each at the universities of Paris, Berlin, and Heidelberg, attending lectures in mathematics and physics and reading widely in both fields. These European studies, rather than his earlier engineering education, provided the foundation for his subsequent career.

Gibbes returned to New Haven in June 1869. He never again left America and rarely left even New Haven except for his annual summer holidays in northern New England and a very occasional journey to lecture or attend a meeting. Gibbs never married and lived all his life in the house in which he had grown up, less than a block away from the college buildings, sharing it with Anna, Julia, and Julia’s family. In July 1871, two years before he published his first scientific paper, Gibbs was appointed professor of mathematical physics at Yale. He held this position without salary for the first nine years, living on his inherited income. It was during this time that he wrote the memoirs on thermodynamics that constitute his greatest contribution to science. Gibbs had no problem about declining a paid appointment at Bowdoin College in 1873, but he was seriously tempted to leave Yale in 1880, when he was invited to join the faculty of the new Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore. Only then did Yale provide a salary for Gibbs, as tangible evidence of the esteem in which he was held by his colleagues and of his importance to the university, but this salary was still only two thirds of what Johns Hopkins had offered him. Gibbs stayed on at Yale nevertheless and continued teaching there until his death, after a brief illness, in the spring of 1903

Hermann von Helmholtz
AKA Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz

Born: 31-Aug-1821
Birthplace: Potsdam, Germany
Died: 8-Sep-1894
Location of death: Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Physicist

Nationality: Germany
Executive summary: Law of Conservation of Energy

German philosopher and man of science, born on the 31st of August 1821 at Potsdam, near Berlin. His father, Ferdinand, was a teacher of philology and philosophy in the gymnasium, while his mother was a Hanoverian lady, a lineal descendant of the great Quaker William Penn. Delicate in early life, Helmholtz became by habit a student, and his father at the same time directed his thoughts to natural phenomena. He soon showed mathematical powers, but these were not fostered by the careful training mathematicians usually receive, and it may be said that in after years his attention was directed to the higher mathematics mainly by force of circumstances.

As his parents were poor, and could not afford to allow him to follow a purely scientific career, he became a surgeon of the Prussian army. In 1842 he wrote a thesis in which he announced the discovery of nerve-cells in ganglia. This was his first work, and from 1842 to 1894, the year of his death, scarcely a year passed without several important, and in some cases epoch-making, papers on scientific subjects coming from his pen. He lived in Berlin from 1842 to 1849, when he became professor of physiology in Königsberg. There he remained from 1849 to 1855, when he removed to the chair of physiology in Bonn. In 1858 he became professor of physiology in Heidelberg, and in 1871 he was called to occupy the chair of physics in Berlin. To this professorship was added in 1887 the post of director of the physico-technical institute at Charlottenburg, near Berlin, and he held the two positions together until his death on the 8th of September 1894.

His investigations occupied almost the whole field of science, including physiology, physiological optics, physiological acoustics, chemistry, mathematics, electricity and magnetism, meteorology and theoretical mechanics. At an early age he contributed to our knowledge of the causes of putrefaction and fermentation. In physiological science he investigated quantitatively the phenomena of animal heat, and he was one of the earliest in the field of animal electricity. He studied the nature of muscular contraction, causing a muscle to record its movements on a smoked glass plate, and he worked out the problem of the velocity of the nervous impulse both in the motor nerves of the frog and in the sensory nerves of man.

In 1847 Helmholtz read to the Physical Society of Berlin a famous paper, Über die Erhaltung der Kraft (on the conservation of force), which became one of the epoch-making papers of the century; indeed, along with Julius Robert Mayer, James Prescott Joule and Lord Kelvin, he may be regarded as one of the founders of the now universally received law of the conservation of energy. The year 1851, while he was lecturing on physiology at Königsberg, saw the brilliant invention of the ophthalmoscope, an instrument which has been of inestimable value to medicine. It arose from an attempt to demonstrate to his class the nature of the glow of reflected light sometimes seen in the eyes of animals such as the cat. When the great ophthalmologist, A. von Gräfe, first saw the fundus of the living human eye, with its optic disc and blood-vessels, his face flushed with excitement, and he cried, "Helmholtz has unfolded to us a new world!"

Helmholtz's contributions to physiological optics are of great importance. He investigated the optical constants of the eye, measured by his invention, the ophthalmometer, the radii of curvature of the crystalline lens for near and far vision, explained the mechanism of accommodation by which the eye can focus within certain limits, discussed the phenomena of color vision, and gave a luminous account of the movements of the eyeballs so as to secure single vision with two eyes. In particular he revived and gave new force to the theory of color vision associated with the name of Thomas Young, showing the three primary colors to be red, green and violet, and he applied the theory to the explanation of color blindness. His great work on Physiological Optics (1856-66) is by far the most important book that has appeared on the physiology and physics of vision.

Equally distinguished were his labors in physiological acoustics. He explained accurately the mechanism of the bones of the ear, and he discussed the physiological action of the cochlea on the principles of sympathetic vibration. Perhaps his greatest contribution, however, was his attempt to account for our perception of quality of tone. He showed, both by analysis and by synthesis, that quality depends on the order, number and intensity of the overtones or harmonics that may, and usually do, enter into the structure of a musical tone. He also developed the theory of differential and of summational tones. His work on Sensations of Tone (1862) may well be termed the principia of physiological acoustics. He may also be said to be the founder of the fixed-pitch theory of vowel tones, according to which it is asserted that the pitch of a vowel depends on the resonance of the mouth, according to the form of the cavity while singing it, and this independently of the pitch of the note on which the vowel is sung.

For the later years of his life his labors may be summed up under the following heads: (1) on the conservation of energy; (2) on hydrodynamics; (3) on electrodynamics and theories of electricity; (4) on meteorological physics; (5) on optics; and (6) on the abstract principles of dynamics. In all these fields of labor he made important contributions to science, and showed himself to be equally great as a mathematician and a physicist. He studied the phenomena of electrical oscillations from 1869 to 1871, and in the latter year he announced that the velocity of the propagation of electromagnetic induction was about 314,000 meters per second. Michael Faraday had shown that the passage of electrical action involved time, and he also asserted that electrical phenomena are brought about by changes in intervening non-conductors or dielectric substances. This led James Clerk Maxwell to frame his theory of electrodynamics, in which electrical impulses were assumed to be transmitted through the ether by waves.

G. F. Fitzgerald was the first to attempt to measure the length of electric waves; Helmholtz put the problem into the hands of his favorite pupil, Heinrich Hertz, and the latter finally gave an experimental demonstration of electromagnetic waves, the "Hertzian waves", on which wireless telegraphy depends, and the velocity of which is the same as that of light. The last investigations of Helmholtz related to problems in theoretical mechanics, more especially as to the relations of matter to the ether, and as to the distribution of energy in mechanical systems. In particular he explained the principle of least action, first advanced by Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, and developed by Sir W. R. Hamilton, of quaternion fame. Helmholtz also wrote on philosophical and aesthetic problems. His position was that of an empiricist, denying the doctrine of innate ideas and holding that all knowledge is founded on experience, hereditarily transmitted or acquired.

The life of Helmholtz was uneventful in the usual sense. He was twice married,, first, in 1849, to Olga von Velten (by whom he had two children, a son and daughter), and secondly, in 1861, to Anna von Mohl, of a Würtemberg family of high social position. Two children were born of this marriage, a son, Robert, who died in 1889, after showing in experimental physics indications of his father's genius, and a daughter, who married a son of Werner von Siemens. Helmholtz was a man of simple but refined tastes, of noble carriage and somewhat austere manner. His life from first to last was one of devotion to science, and he must be accounted, on intellectual grounds, one of the foremost men of the 19th century.

Father: August Ferdinand Julius Helmholtz (headmaster, Potsdam Gymnasium, d. 1858)
Mother: Caroline Penn
Wife: Olga von Velten (m. 26-Aug-1849, d. 1859, two children)
Wife: Anna von Mohl (m. 16-May-1861)

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Planck was born in Kiel, Holstein, to Johann Julius Wilhelm Planck and his second wife, Emma Patzig. He was baptised with the name of Karl Ernst Ludwig Marx Planck; of his given names, Marx (a now obsolete variant of Markus or maybe simply an error for Max, which is actually short for Maximilian) was indicated as the primary name.[4] However, by the age of ten he signed with the name Max and used this for the rest of his life.[5]
He was the 6th child in the family, though two of his siblings were from his father's first marriage. Among his earliest memories was the marching of Prussian and Austrian troops into Kiel during the Second Schleswig War in 1864. In 1867 the family moved to Munich, and Planck enrolled in the Maximilians gymnasium school, where he came under the tutelage of Hermann Müller, a mathematician who took an interest in the youth, and taught him astronomy and mechanics as well as mathematics. It was from Müller that Planck first learned the principle of conservation of energy. Planck graduated early, at age 17.[6] This is how Planck first came in contact with the field of physics.

فالتر هيرمان نيرنست (بالألمانية: Walther Nernst)
هو كيميائي وفيزيائي ألماني
ولد في 25 يونيو 1864 وتوفى في 18 نوفمبر 1941.
قام بالعديد من الأبحاث في مجال كيمياء كهربية وتحريك حراري وكيمياء المواد الصلبة كما يعرف بمعادلته المسماة باسمه (معادلة نرنست) الخاصة بالبطاريات.

درس ولتر نرنست الفيزياء والرياضيات في جامعات زيورخ وبرلين وغراتس.
بعد أن عمل في لايبزغ أسس معهد الفزياء والكيمياء والكيمياء الكهربية في جوتنجن.
اخترع نرنست في سنة 1898 اللمبة الكهربائية بالشعيرة المعدنية لتحل محل الشعيرة الكربونية.
تحصل على جائزة نوبل في الكيمياء لسنة 1920 لإنجازاته العلمية في التحريك الحراري
كما حصل على وسام فرانكلين سنة 1928.
أوقف أبحاثه سنة 1933 وكان عندها أستاذا للفيزياء في جامعة برلين.

انفجارات "مقيَّدة"
إنّ محرِّكَ "الاشتعال الداخلي"، الذي يُحرِّك، تقريبًا، كلّ أدوات سيّاراتنا وشاحناتنا، اختُرِعَ نهاية القرن التاسع عشر.
ينفجرُ في هذا المحرّك خليطٌ غازيٌّ من الوقود والأكسجين، حيث تُسخِّنُ طاقة الانفجارِ الغازات الناتجة وتؤدّي إلى تمدُّدها

يُحرّك هذا التمدّدُ المكبسَ. هناك فائدةٌ للمحرّكات التي من هذا النوع. بمعنى آخر، قسمٌ من الطاقة الحرارية، فقط، يُترجَم إلى حركةٍ ميكانيكيّة.
إنّ هذا القسم النسبيّ - الاستفادة هذه - يكون بنسبة 20-30 في المائة. قبل مجيء نيرنست لم يكن في الإمكان حسابُ الفائدة القصوى النظريّة لمحرّكٍ من هذا النوع.
قام نيرنست بتطوير نظريّةٍ ترتكزُ على الروابط القائمة بين الذرّات.
تُعتبر هذه النظريّة هامّة جدًّا حتّى أنّها حصلت على لقب "القانون الثالث للديناميكا الحراريّة"، وتُعتبر - حتى يومنا كذلك - ذات أهميّةٍ عِلميّةٍ وصناعيّةٍ كبيرة.

إشارات عصبيّة
قدّمَ نيرنست مساهمةً كبيرةً للكيمياء الفيزيائيّة – فهمَ المبادئ الكيميائيّة بمصطلحاتِ القوانين الفيزيائيّة الأساسيّة.
خُلِّدَت إحدى مساهماته باسم "معادلة نيرنست". تُعتبر هذه المعادلة مهمّةً بشكلٍ خاصّ لفهمِ الطريقة التي تعمل بحسبها الأعصاب في جسمنا.
إنّ "خيوط الكهرباء" التي تحمل هذه النبضات، الألياف العصبيّة، ليست مصنوعةً من المعدن (أساسًا، يبدو أنّ نظرية النشوء لم تكتشف أبدًا كيفيّة نشوء الخيوط المعدنيّة)،
بل هي بمثابة خيوطٍ مُحاطةٍ بأغلفة مليئة بمحلولٍ مائيٍّ من الأيونات (مجموعة ذرّات أو ذرّات ذات شحنة كهربائيّة).
يقوم هذا المحلول الذي يحمل الاسم "إلكتروليت" بتمرير الكهرباء: تتدفّق الأيونات عبر مسامات غشائيّة تُشكّل جدارَ الأغلفة، ويّعتبر هذا التدفّق بمثابة معبر النبضات الكهربائيّة.
إنّه يختلف بذلك عن تدفّق الكهرباء في أجهزة الاتصال التكنولوجيّة، التي تمرّ الطاقة الكهربائيّة فيها من خلال تدفّق إلكتروناتٍ على طول أربطةٍ معدنيّة.
تصفُ معادلة نيرنست التوازن القائم بين الجانبيْن اللذيْن يُحدّدان تدفّق الأيونات عبر الغشاء: بين ميْل الأيونات إلى التدفق من جانب الغشاء الذي يحتوي على تركيزٍ أعلى نحو الجانب الذي يحتوي على تركيزٍ أقلّ (الضغط الناضح)،
وبين الميْل النابع من فائض السِّعة الكهربائيّة بين جانبٍ واحدٍ باتجاه الجانب الآخر. تُعتبر هذه المعادلة مركزيّة جدًّا في فهم نشاطات العصَب، التي كتب عنها عاِلم البيولوجيا العصبية غوردون شيبارد (G. Shepherd) في كتابه قائلاً: "إذا كنت مستعدًّا لتعلّم معادلةٍ واحدةٍ فقط في مجال البيولوجيا العصبيّة،
فإنّ معادلة نيرنست هي المعادلة التي عليك تعلّمها، لأنّها حجرُ الأساس في فهم طبيعة السِّعات الكهربائيّة في كلّ الخلايا، وكذلك في النشاطات الكهربائيّة العصبيّة.

معادلتهِ المشهورة
معادلة نرنست هي معادلة يمكن استخدامها لحساب قيمة الكمون الكهربائي لاختزال نصف الخلية (كمون الاختزال) في خلية كهركيميائية.
كما يمكن بواسطتها حساب الجهد الكهربائي لخلية كاملة، بالإضافة إلى حساب الكمون الكهربائي للأيونات في خلايا جسم الإنسان (مثل خلايا الأعصاب وخلايا العضلات) في حالة الكمون.

معادلة نصف الخلية و الخلية الكاملة
معادلة نصف الخلية حيث يحدث فيها تفاعل اختزال reduction:
معادلة الخلية الكاملة:
جهد نرنست
مقالة مفصلة: جهد الاعتكاس
من تطبيقات معادلة نرنست في الفيسيولجيا حساب جهد أيون ذو شحنة z عبر غشاء . وتعين ذلك الجهد باستخدام تركيزي الأيون على جهتي الغشاء:

فإذا كان الغشاء في حالة توازن ترموديناميكي - أي لا يوجد انتقال أيونات زائدة إلى إحدى الجهتين - يكون جهد الغشاء مساويا "لجهد نرنست " .
ولكن بسبب وجود قنوات أيونية في بناء الكائنات الحية فلا توجد حالة توازن ترمودياناميكي داخل وخارج الخلية .
وفي تلك لحالة يمكن تعيين جهد الراحة عن طريق حساب معادلة غولدمان:

بطلٌ قوميّ
حظيَ نيرنست باحترامٍ كبيرٍ في حياته، وحازَ، ضمن أشياء أخرى، جائزةَ نوبل لعام 1920.
لم يفشل إلا في مجالٍ واحد: لم يكن مُخترعًا بارزًا. لم يُثمرِ أيٌّ من اختراعاته، عِلمًا أنّ واحدًا منها، البيانو الكهربائيّ،
كان سابقًا لأوانه، ببساطة: لقد حوّل موجّه الصوت في البيانو إلى مكبّرات صوت إذاعيّة، ولكنّ النتيجةَ لم تكن لطيفةً على أذنيْ الموسيقيّين… فقدَ نيرنست ولديه في الحرب العالميّة الثانية، وأصبحَ، نوعًا ما، بطلاً قوميًّا.
لكنّ توجّهاته السلميّة لم تعجب النازيين، فعندما تقلّدوا زِمام السُّلطة، عام 1933،
هربَ نيرنست إلى عزبةٍ قرويّة، ولم يشارك مجدّدًا في الحياة الأكاديميّة أو المدنيّة. توفي نيرنست عام 1941.

اعداد - سلوى

One of Germany's most important, productive and often controversial scientists, Walther H. Nernst (1864-1941) was at once the first "modern" physical chemist, an able scientific organizer and a savvy entrepreneur. The winner of the 1920 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Nernst was a key figure in the transition to modern physical science with his contributions to the study of solutions, of chemical equilibria, and of the behavior of matter at the extremes of the temperature range. This volume provides a scientific biography of the man who was a director of major research institutes, the rector of the Berlin University, and the inventor of a new electric lamp. It also addresses the work of many prominent scientists, such as Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Wilhelm Ostwald and Svante Arrhenius. A wealth of new archival material and recent scholarship reveals how Nernst's career exemplified the increasing connection between the German technical industry and academic science, between theory and experiment, between concepts and practice, providing a rich portrait of the history of science in the period preceding the Second World War. This book also details a set of specific scientific problems that evolved at the intersection of physics, chemistry and technology during one of the most revolutionary periods of modern physical science

In science, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) (IQ=220) (CR:9|330) (DN=5.5±) (RE=76) was a German-born American greatest physicist ever physicist noted for his 1905 discovery of the equivalence of mass and energy (mass-energy equivalence), for his hypothesis of "light quanta" (based on Max Planck's 1901 energy element), a pioneer of radiation thermodynamics, initiator of the science of relativistic thermodynamics, and for his 1915 masterpiece the general theory of relativity, which provided a new general theory of gravity that predicted the gravitational bending of light rays, a phenomenon that was confirmed by Arthur Eddington during the eclipse of 1919, after which Einstein became world-famous. [1] The follow is Einstein's 1933 statement on human behavior: [26]

“Our behavior should be motivated by the ever-present realization that human beings in their thoughts, feelings and actions are not free agents, but are subject to the inexorable laws of cause and effect as are the stars in their courses.”

The following is a truncated version of one of Einstein's famous quotes on physical theories:

“Thermodynamics is the only physical theory of universal content that will never be overthrown.”

Einstein also developed a model for the heat capacity in solids and gases, and, together with Indian physicist Satyendra Bose, developed a variation of statistics allowing for the description of the behavior of bosons. [2]

Purpose? | Why's of existence
See main: Einstein on purpose; See also: Einstein-Pascal dialogue
In December 1950, Einstein received a long handwritten letter from a nineteen-year-old engineering student at Rutgers University who said “My problem is this, sir, ‘What is the purpose of man on earth?’” Dismissing such possible answers as to make money, to achieve fame, and to help others, the student said “Frankly, sir, I don’t even know why I’m going to college and studying engineering.” The student went on to express his opinion that man is here “for no purpose at all” and went on to quote from French mathematical physicist Blaise Pascal’s (IQ=190) Pensees (Thoughts) the following words, which he said aptly summed up his own feelings on the matter: [20]

“I know not who put me into the world, nor what the world is, nor what I myself am. I am in terrible ignorance of everything. I know not what my body is, nor my senses, nor my soul, not ever that part of me which thinks what I say, which reflects on all and on itself, and knows itself no more than the rest. I see those frightful spaces of the universe which surround me, and I find myself tied to one corner of this vast expanse, without knowing why I am put in this place rather than another, nor why this short time which is given me to live is assigned to me at this point rather than at another of the whole eternity which was before me or which shall come after me. I see nothing but infinities on all sides, which surround me as an atom, and as a shadow which endures only for an instant and returns no more. All I know is that I must die, but what I know least is this very death

In chemical thermodynamics, Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875-1946)
(IQ:13|195) (CR:4|430) was an American physical chemist and chemical thermodynamicist notable for the publication of his 1923 textbook Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances, written via dictation to American physical chemist Merle Randall, that resulted to be the most referenced thermodynamics textbook (by other thermodynamics textbooks) of the 20th century, known as the the so-called "thermodynamic bible", that resulted, in the 1956 words of American chemistry historian Henry Leicester, to “replace the term ‘affinity’ by the term ‘free energy’ [throughout] the English-speaking world.”

Lewis is also noted for the development of the Lewis dot structure (electron pair) model (1902) of the covalent bond, e.g. H:H for the hydrogen molecule H2, for his Anatomy of Science conjectures on a speculative future "wonderful science" (see: hmolscience), somewhere between mechanics and psychology, that explains the behavior of both the electron and a person (1925), for coining the term photon as the particle of light (1926), for his interjection into the Szilard demon argument (1930), and in general for the formation of what has come to be known as the "Lewis school", centered around the University of California, Berkeley, which, as summarized by South African physical chemist Adriaan de Lange, has produced “more Nobel Prize winners in chemistry than any Nobel Prize winner in any category”, a school of influence that is still being felt.

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Lewis spent his youth in Lincoln, Neb. Initially educated at home by his parents, at age 13 he entered the preparatory school of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He continued at the university through his sophomore year before transferring to Harvard University in 1893, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1896. After a year of teaching at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., he returned to Harvard to complete a master’s degree in 1898, followed by a doctorate the next year under the supervision of Theodore Richards for a dissertation on the electrochemistry of zinc and cadmium amalgams.

Edward Armand Guggenheim FRS[1] (11 August 1901 in
Manchester – 9 August 1970) was an English thermodynamicist and professor of chemistry at the University of Reading.[3][2]

Education[edit]
Guggenheim was educated at Charterhouse School[1] and the University of Cambridge (M. A., Sc. D., ).

In 1939, Guggenheim co-authored a volume entitled Statistical Thermodynamics with Ralph Fowler.[5]

From 1946 to 1966 Guggenheim was a professor of chemistry at the University of Reading, and subsequently Emeritus Professor in the University.


In 1972, the E. A. Guggenheim Memorial Fund was established by friends and colleagues. The income from the fund is used to (a) award an annual prize and (b) to provide a biennial or triennial memorial lecture on some topic of chemistry or physics appropriate to the interests of Guggenheim.[7]

Schrodinger’s biography shows that even with severe illness and family financial disaster, great accomplishment is possible.
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Erwin Schrödinger
Religion: Roman Catholic
Occupation: Physicist
Nationality: Austria
Executive summary: Schrِdinger's wave equation

Military service: German Army (WWI, Italian Front)
Austrian physicist Erwin Schrِdinger won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933, for his 1926 introduction of Schrِdinger's wave, the mathematical equation of wave mechanics that is still the most widely used piece of mathematics in modern quantum theory. It posits a non-relativistic wave equation that governs how electrons behave within the hydrogen atom. He worked on analytical mechanics, applications of partial differential equations to dynamics, atomic spectroscopy, color theory, cosmology, counter (or detector) statistics, eigenvalue problems, electromagnetic theory, general relativity, James Clerk Maxwell's equations, meson physics, optics, radiation theory, solid-state physics, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and the unified field theory. He also wrote extensively on the history of science, and existential questions of life.
He introduced his famous "Schrِdinger's cat" paradox in a 1935 paper, "The present situation in quantum mechanics". The cat quandary was intended to illustrate the absurdity of quantum physics, which must deal in probabilities rather than observable certainties. The scenario varies, but generally "Schrِdinger's cat" tells the story of a cat sharing a closed box with an elaborate booby trap consisting of a vial of cyanide gas, a small but deadly quantity of radioactive material, and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector senses decay in the radioactive material at the atomic level it triggers the release of the poison gas and the cat is killed; but if radioactive decay is not detected then the cat enjoys a quiet nap and no harm is done. So long as the box remains closed scientists cannot observe whether the cat is dead, but until the box is opened and the cat is observed, the cat exists in an indeterminate state and must be assumed to be both dead and alive. Beyond this odd conundrum lies an odder paradox of quantum physics, that quantum level observations of position with regard to momentum are indeed as indeterminate as the cat's state of life or death.
Though Catholic by faith Schrِdinger was infuriated by Germany's anti-Jewish laws. In 1933, when an English scientist visited the University of Berlin to try to arrange safe exit from Germany for several of the school's Jewish scientists, Schrِdinger — one of the world's most famous scientists — startled the visitor by asking if he could arrange passage for himself and his family. After leaving Germany he spent a few years at Cambridge, then relocated to Austria's University of Graz — which became Adolf Hitler University after the Nazis invaded Austria, leading Schrِdinger to flee another nation. He eventually took residence at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, where he worked for seventeen years, by far his longest stint at any one institution.

Father: Rudolf Schrödinger (linoleum factory manager)




Mother: Georgine Emilia Brenda Bauer ("Emily")


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Erwin Schrödinger's father, Rudolf Schrödinger, ran a small linoleum factory which he had inherited from his own father. Erwin's mother, Emily Bauer, was half English, this side of the family coming from Leamington Spa, and half Austrian with her father coming from Vienna.

Schrödinger learnt English and German almost at the same time due to the fact that both were spoken in the household. He was not sent to elementary school, but received lessons at home from a private tutor up to the age of ten. He then entered the Akademisches Gymnasium in the autumn of 1898, rather later than was usual since he spent a long holiday in England around the time he might have entered the school. He wrote later about his time at the Gymnasium:-

In [16] there is the following quotation from a student in Schrödinger's class at school:-

Schrödinger graduated from the Akademisches Gymnasium in 1906 and, in that year, entered the University of Vienna. In theoretical physics he studied analytical mechanics, applications of partial differential equations to dynamics, eigenvalue problems, Maxwell's equations and electromagnetic theory, optics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. It was Fritz Hasenöhrl's lectures on theoretical physics which had the greatest influence on Schrödinger. In mathematics he was taught calculus and algebra by Franz Mertens, function theory, differential equations and mathematical statistics by Wilhelm Wirtinger (whom he found uninspiring as a lecturer). He also studied projective geometry, algebraic curves and continuous groups in lectures given by Gustav Kohn.
On 20 May 1910, Schrödinger was awarded his doctorate for the dissertation On the conduction of electricity on the surface of insulators in moist air. After this he undertook voluntary military service in the fortress artillery. Then he was appointed to an assistantship at Vienna but, rather surprisingly, in experimental physics rather than theoretical physics. He later said that his experiences conducting experiments proved an invaluable asset to his theoretical work since it gave him a practical philosophical framework in which to set his theoretical ideas.

Having completed the work for his habilitation, he was awarded the degree on 1 September 1914. That it was not an outstanding piece of work is shown by the fact that the committee was not unanimous in recommending him for the degree. As Moore writes in [8]:-

In 1914 Schrödinger's first important paper was published developing ideas of Boltzmann. However, with the outbreak of World War I, Schrödinger received orders to take up duty on the Italian border. His time of active service was not wasted as far as research was concerned, however, for he continued his theoretical work, submitting another paper from his position on the Italian front. In 1915 he was transferred to duty in Hungary and from there he submitted further papers for publication. After being sent back to the Italian front, Schrödinger received a citation for outstanding service commanding a battery during a battle.
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=In science, Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) (IQ=190|#32) (CR=144|#23) was an Austrian physicist—a top ranked greatest physicist ever—noted for his 1925 Schrodinger equation, a Lagrangian-based state equation for the wave movement of an electron about an atom, for his 1935 book Science and the Human Temperament, wherein he stated his opinion that the rise of cultures is governed by the second law of thermodynamics, for his ultra-famous 1943 "What is Life? (in terms of Physics and Chemistry) lecture-turned-book, wherein he postulated that “life feeds on negative entropy” and followup retraction "Note to Chapter 6", wherein he had to admit to error, commenting that he he should have discussed life in terms of "free energy" in stead of entropy, in regards to the theory of life question, and for his 1946 Statistical Mechanics book. [1] Schrodinger won the 1933 Nobel Prize for his development of the Schrodinger equation.

Human thermodynamics
In 1935, in the context of human thermodynamics, Schrodinger, in his Science and the Human Temperament, stated the following in regards to the second law and rise of human cultures, as re-quoted by American anthropologist Leslie White (1959): [3]

Life feeds on negative entropy
In popular or colloquial use, Schrodinger's cryptic "life feeds on negative entropy" postulate, might be considered as one of the most oft-quoted passages culled from the publications of thermodynamics. In extrapolation to human life, this would imply that people, in some way, feed on negative entropy (or a negative value of entropy S). In linguistic form, Schrödinger’s postulate is similar to Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann’s 1886 postulate that “the general struggle for existence of animate beings is … a struggle for entropy”. [2]

Negative entropy and order

In terms of entropy and order, in somewhat riddled form, Schrödinger reasoned that living organisms feed on negative entropy. To begin, he states that he will “try to sketch the bearing of the entropy principle (the second law of thermodynamics) on the large-scale behavior of a living organism”. Second, he equates thermodynamic equilibrium, or what he calls “maximum entropy”, as a state in which chemical potentials are equalized, wherein systems become dead, in which no observable changes occur. To avoid decay to this hypothetical death state, Schrödinger reasons that it is not energy that living beings feed on that keeps them at bay from decay but “negative entropy”. In rephrasing this statement, he says “the essential thing in metabolism is that the organism succeeds in freeing itself from all the entropy it cannot help producing while alive.” In making these ball-park statements, Schrödinger calls on the statistical concept of order and disorder, connections that were revealed, as he says, by the investigations of Boltzmann and Gibbs in statistical physics. On this basis, he situates the following definition: