Boltzmanns Atom: The Great Debate That Launched A Revolution In Physics

by David Lindley

In 1900 many eminent scientists did not believe atoms existed, yet within just a few years the atomic century launched into history with an astonishing string of breakthroughs in physics that began with Albert Einstein and continues to this day. Before this explosive growth into the modern age took place, an all-but-forgotten genius strove for forty years to win acceptance for the atomic theory of matter and an altogether new way of doing physics. Ludwig Boltz-mann battled with philosophers, the scientific establishment, and his own potent demons. His victory led the way to the greatest scientific achievements of the twentieth century.Now acclaimed science writer David Lindley portrays the dramatic story of Boltzmann and his embrace of the atom, while providing a window on the civilized world that gave birth to our scientific era. Boltzmann emerges as an endearingly quixotic character, passionately inspired by Beethoven, who muddled through the practical matters of life in a European gilded age.Boltzmann's story reaches from fin de siècle Vienna, across Germany and Britain, to America. As the Habsburg Empire was crumbling, Germany's intellectual might was growing; Edinburgh in Scotland was one of the most intellectually fertile places on earth; and, in America, brilliant independent minds were beginning to draw on the best ideas of the bureaucratized old world.Boltzmann's nemesis in the field of theoretical physics at home in Austria was Ernst Mach, noted today in the term Mach I, the speed of sound. Mach believed physics should address only that which could be directly observed. How could we know that frisky atoms jiggling about corresponded to heat if we couldn't see them? Why should we bother with theories that only told us what would probably happen, rather than making an absolute prediction? Mach and Boltzmann both believed in the power of science, but their approaches to physics could not have been more opposed. Boltzmann sought to explain the real world, and cast aside any philosophical criteria. Mach, along with many nineteenth-century scientists, wanted to construct an empirical edifice of absolute truths that obeyed strict philosophical rules. Boltzmann did not get on well with authority in any form, and he did his best work at arm's length from it. When at the end of his career he engaged with the philosophical authorities in the Viennese academy, the results were personally disastrous and tragic. Yet Boltzmann's enduring legacy lives on in the new physics and technology of our wired world.Lindley's elegant telling of this tale combines the detailed breadth of the best history, the beauty of theoretical physics, and the psychological insight belonging to the finest of novels.

Genres: Science, Physics, History, Biography, Nonfiction, Chemistry, History Of Science

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 18, 2001

About the author

David Lindley is a theoretical physicist and author. He holds a B.A. in theoretical physics from Cambridge University and a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Sussex. Then he was a postdoctoral researcher at Cambridge University.

Reviews

[Avery Lehman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was going to introduce and explain Boltzmann’s idea behind the atom and what it was but it ended up just being a biography about Boltzmann and his and OTHERS scientific career.
Also, it hardly covered what scientific discoveries he made in the atomic theory, more of a generalized statement about what he did and where, never even mentioned anything about the Boltzmanns constant.

[George Dimitrov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction of a time when 'atom' was a questionable entity, scientists were larger than life, Europe was at peace. It was nice to learn some personal information about people who's names we now associate only with constants, theories and scientific units.

[Arvind Balasundaram · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written biography of the tragic life of the brilliant scientist, Ludwig Boltzmann. Lindley paints a very intimate portrait of the scientist from within, rather than without, providing the reader with a close-up view of the peaks and ebbs of Boltzmann's checkered career and personal life.

The author provides a cogent review of Boltzmann's contributions to thermodynamics, especially the development of kinetic theory. Most significantly, Boltzmann introduced a probabilistic interpretation of atoms in a gas for the first time, and argued for why entropy always has a tendency to increase using this framework. However, this was being enunciated in a world of classical physics paradigms, and in a Vienna where physics and philosophy were getting intertwined in the erroneous views of Ernst Mach. Mach and his circle of followers believed that only that which is perceived should be the basis of argument, and hence theories about unseen atoms were just that - theories. It was in this climate that Boltzmann expounded his physics, all the while battling bouts of depression and social anxiety, ultimately ending in his suicide.

Lindley has written an excellent book on a scientific persona who often gets lost in the history of scientific achievement. Without Boltzmann's pioneering work on the role of probabilities in scientific laws, neither Planck nor Einstein would have successfully developed their arguments around quanta, ultimately leading to an explanation of the photoelectric effect and even the Special Theory of Relativity. This is a splendid account of a tormented life that helped successfully catalyze the transition between classical and modern physics in the face of overwhelming opposition.

[Roy White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange to see how persistent the opposition to atomic theory was, and how people like Mach turned into a sort of philosophy, not allowing physics to talk about anything that could not be dobserved directly. Also interesting how hard it was to assimilate the use of statistics to understand the behavior of large numbers of atoms. It's always worth being reminded how the most obvious ideas once seemed threatening.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ludwig Boltzmann was one of the great theoretical physicists of the 19th century. More than anyone else he picked through the use of statistical mechanics to explain thermodynamics.

This book is a short professional biography, explaining his work in the context of his life. The writing is engaging and the physics is explained fluently. The other apologies for not having written longer and more detailed biography, but I suspect the materials for one do not exist.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I liked Uncertainty more but I felt like I had to read this one because he refers to it so often in his later book. Again it's interesting to see how scientists' personalities influence their research but I found this one a little drier than his other book.

[M]

Too much biography, not enough science. In fact, hardly any science. "Atom" is prominent in the title but very little in this book about what he did or discovered or why it was important.

[Mark Stidham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This surprising history shows a perhaps forgotten era that set the stage for the early twentieth century revolution in physics, namely relativity and quantum mechanics. Prior to reading this account, I had imagined the work of Avogadro, Dalton, Mendeleev, and others had established atoms as facts. This book gives some detailed history mostly around Boltzmann showing how atomic theory was still controversial and not universally accepted. It was Boltzmann's dual skills in mathematics and physics that allowed him to introduce statistical and probability disciplines into physics, and these innovations advanced work of Maxwell, Clausius, and others. But electromagnetic theory and energy theories were accepted by the physics community while allowing that atomism still could be wrong. Boltzmann's theories required accepting the atomic theory of matter and ultimately the quantum theory of energy.
Boltzmann's career was channeled through another independent theme of the time: nationalism. The politics of Germany and Austria created tensions as Boltzmann was drawn alternately towards the prestigious German institutions of his time and to his native Austrian institutions that competed for him.
One interesting nugget in the book was that Boltzmann was a talented musician who received piano lessons from none other than Anton Bruckner. The musical side of Boltzmann was not explored much in the book. The book was not represented as a comprehensive biography, so I may be unfair in saying I was left wanting to understand more about Boltzmann's psyche.

[Aaron Rossi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fascinating review of a debate that gets forgotten in modern science; the existence of the atom.

The author did an excellent job of bring us back to the mid 19th century (1800's) by first setting up some history regarding the debate of atoms. This is followed by an excellent set up of the arguments that Boltzmann, Mach, and all other prominent characters, made for their respective views. These views are laid out without the need of technical experience, which makes the book presentable to a general audience.

I personally enjoyed the stylistic presentation of the book and how the debate is laid out by the author in a historical and presentable form. However, I wanted more of an explanation of the physics and philosophy between the people involved, and perhaps more references to their original work. I would like to see more of the "physics" of the arguments made by, Maxwell, Boltzmann, Mach, and the everyone else (although, I will admit, I have a mathematical physics background, and am biased to this presentation and view point).

That being said, I very much enjoyed some of the anecdotes about the characters in the book, specifically Boltzmann. Personal favorites include his wife's courtship of him and his drinking and travel habits, which I found highly illuminating and amusing. That being said, the history behind this debate was fascinating and well worth the read, as someone who has studied physics.

All in all, if you are interested in how physics, chemistry, and/or science behind what we now believe on the atomic or quantum level, it is well worth a read.

Highly readable and understandable for a general audience.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written for a 'general audience,' this book gives the reader a lucid rendering of the issues physicists were debating in the late nineteenth century. The central issue of whether atoms existed or were merely useful fictions for calculating the behavior of gases is presented in its historical context, which takes some effort on the part of a twenty first century reader to get his mind back to the way people thought before the discovery of x-rays etc. The book's virtue is that it carried me back into that world. In addition to this the book, as a biography of Boltzmann, is a tragedy and it is also to the author's credit that he got me to have feelings for a physicist who was a difficult person. If you have an interest in learning about physics, historically, this is a good book. I read it after reading 'Faraday, Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field', which was a good idea.

[Rhiannon Bacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining biographies about the famous political characters of history are often written, yet stories about the people behind the science are rare. Science does not exist in a vacuum any more than any other enterprise of the human creature. This book introduces us to some of the great thinkers of modern physics in their day to day lives, including the political revolutions going on in Europe approaching the first World War, as well as the personal emotional frailties and bickering amongst the scientific elite. What is also special about this book is that you do not need to be one of those "scientific elite" to understand it, as Lindley is quite gifted in explaining complex concepts in everyday terms.

[Jacob Olshansky · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and engaging biography of Boltzmann. However, it is best suited for an audience with prior physics knowledge. Many scientific biographies get bogged down with long lists of characters that become hard for the reader to keep track of. This book provides mini-biographies for the supporting cast and employs some degree of repetition to help the reader keep track of the various characters. I also appreciated sections providing geopolitical context for Boltzmann's life events.

[Hiram Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kind of nerdiest

I’m always amazed to read about times when the simple models that were explained to me as facts were not known at all. There is so much to be learned from examining the lives of the trailblazers.

[Metin Ozsavran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book from a great science writer. Who seems to be a little jealous if his subject matter character. :)

[Denis Dounaev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read

Very well researched and written. Right mix of biography, history and physics. Recommended to anyone interested in the history of atomism.

[Nithesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accessible guide to the development of philosophies of theoretical physics dressed up as a quasi-memoir.

[Desmond]

Great little book...Had fun with the history. s=k*logW :)

[Misch]

In some ways Ludwig Boltzmann seems like the ignatius Riley of theoretical physics

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Well done and I enjoyed all the background information that was happening both in physics and in the world during Boltzmann lifetime.

[Bradley White · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating tour of Boltzmann’s life and the physics, and the philosophy of the time. Anybody who loves science should read this book.

[Vicente Mendes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I would want from a biography of a physicist

[Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currently, I am on page 40. The whole of physics or life of Boltzmann described till this page can be written down in 4 or 5 pages. The rest is all about history of Vienna or history of ancient times. Let's see what's coming.

I have now completed the book. The book is wonderful. It has combination of both physics and history. Increased rating by 1 star.