"The laws of thermodynamics, as empirically determined, express the approximate and probable behavior of systems of a great number of particles, or, more precisely, they express the laws of mechanics for such systems as they appear to beings who have not the fineness of perception to enable them to appreciate quantities of the order of magnitude of those which relate to single particles, and who cannot repeat their experiments often enough to obtain any but the most probable results."
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Mathematicians from the United StatesPeople from New HavenPhysicists from the United StatesYale University alumniChemists from the United States
Original Language: English
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From the preface to Elementary Principles in Statististical Mechanics (1902), p. viii. Full book
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs
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Josiah Willard Gibbs
Josiah Willard Gibbs (February 11 1839 – April 28 1903) was an American theoretical physicist, chemist and mathematician. One of the greatest American scientists of all time, he devised much of the theoretical foundation for chemical thermodynamics, as well as physical chemistry and statistical mechanics.
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