TY - JOUR

T1 - Heated debate.

AU - McClintock, Peter V. E.

N1 - Review of "Principles of Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics" by D.F. Lawden, Wiley, 168pp., ISBN: 0471911720 and 91l747.

PY - 1987/3/6

Y1 - 1987/3/6

N2 - Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, of their nature, represent subsidiary bodies of scientific theory. That is, they deal, not with the fundamental physical laws that govern the interactions and fields of elementary particles, but rather with the chaotic aggregates of particles that constitutt> the familiar world of bulk matter. An important and rather pleasing consequence of this subsidiary status, as Professor Lawden points out, is that these subjects are largely independent of the detailed characteristics of the microscopic constituents (for example, atoms, molecules or quanta) of the systems that they can be used to describe. They are thus endowed with a universality and a quality of endurance that should enable them to outlast many epochs of more fundamental theories.

AB - Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, of their nature, represent subsidiary bodies of scientific theory. That is, they deal, not with the fundamental physical laws that govern the interactions and fields of elementary particles, but rather with the chaotic aggregates of particles that constitutt> the familiar world of bulk matter. An important and rather pleasing consequence of this subsidiary status, as Professor Lawden points out, is that these subjects are largely independent of the detailed characteristics of the microscopic constituents (for example, atoms, molecules or quanta) of the systems that they can be used to describe. They are thus endowed with a universality and a quality of endurance that should enable them to outlast many epochs of more fundamental theories.

M3 - Book/Film/Article review

JO - Times Higher Education Supplement

JF - Times Higher Education Supplement

ER -