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The Statistical Style of Reasoning and the Invention of Bose‐Einstein Statistics
Author(s) -
Monaldi Daniela
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
berichte zur wissenschaftsgeschichte
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1522-2365
pISSN - 0170-6233
DOI - 10.1002/bewi.201900015
Subject(s) - einstein , statistical mechanics , analogy , statistics , generalization , quantum statistical mechanics , ideal (ethics) , ideal gas , statistical theory , style (visual arts) , statistical analysis , statistical physics , physics , quantum , theoretical physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , epistemology , philosophy , history , mathematical analysis , archaeology
This paper is a preliminary exploration of the connections between the statistical style of reasoning and the research practices of statistical mechanics in the early period of the long quantum revolution. It suggests that before 1925 the instantiations of the statistical style in physics went through two phases. The first phase consisted of the formulation of the Maxwell‐Boltzmann statistics on the basis of the population‐gas analogy. The second phase was characterized by the generalization of the Maxwell‐Boltzmann statistics through analogies between ideal gas molecules and other microphysical entities, analogies that shaped and were shaped by the rise of quantum theory. Einstein's invention of the Bose‐Einstein statistics started a third phase and created the conditions of possibility for a new classification of microphysical entities according to their different statistics.