Kinetic theory of gases and Maxwell distribution
Teoría cinética de los gases y distribución de Maxwell
- Date
- 1857-1860 · confidence high
- Place
- Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- James Clerk Maxwell; Rudolf Clausius; Ludwig Boltzmann
- People
- 👤 James Clerk Maxwell1831–1879👤 Ludwig Boltzmann1844–1906👤 Rudolf Clausius1822–1888
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The pressure and temperature of a gas are effects of the motion of its molecules; Clausius introduces the mean free path and Maxwell deduces the statistical distribution of velocities. The first statistical law of physics.
Waterston sent his theory to the Royal Society in 1845 and it was rejected; Rayleigh rescued it in 1892.
What it led to
- Statistical mechanics
- Reality of atoms (Perrin, 1908)
- Plasma physics and transport
- Diffusion and viscosity phenomena
Built on
- Boyle's law1662
- Bernoulli's Hydrodynamica (1738)
- Herapath's and Waterston's work (rejected)
Made possible
- Graham's law1848
- Statistical mechanics and the statistical interpretation of entropy1872-1877
- Molecular vacuum pumps
- Isotope separation by diffusion