DOC.
25
SOLVAY DISCUSSION REMARKS
507
kommt,
scheint
es
mir
bei
dieser
Auffassung
von
Boltzmanns
Prinzip
nicht
möglich
zu
sein,
über
die
Zulässigkeit irgend
einer Elementartheorie auf
Grund der
empirisch
behannten
thermodynamischen Eigenschaften
eines
Systems irgend
welche
Schlüsse
zu
ziehen.
No.
[53]
(Planck et
al.
1914a,
p.
98;
Planck
et
al.
1912,
p. 119)
2)
Gegen
die
Anwendung
der statistischen Methoden auf
die
Strahlung
ist
oft
Einspruch
erhoben worden. Ich
sehe
aber keinen
Grund
dafür,
dass
diese
Methoden hier auszuschliessen
seien
(Vgl.
d.
Rapport
H.
A.
Lorentz
§6-§13).
3)
Weglassen!
No.
100
(Planck et
al.
1914a,
p. 106;
Planck
et
al.
1912,
p.
129)
4)
Wenn
ein
Oszillator anders ausstrahlen
soll als
nach Herrn Planck's
ur-
sprünglicher
Theorie,
so
bedeutet
dies
einen Verzicht auf
die
Gültigkeit
von
Maxwells
Gleichungen
in
der
Umgebung
des
Oszillators. Denn nach
Maxwells
Gleichungen
hat
das
quasistatische
Feld
des
oszillierenden
Dipols notwendig
die
Energieabgabe
in
Kugelwellen
zur
Folge.
V.
KNUDSEN
Knudsen had reviewed the available evidence
in
favor
of the kinetic
theory
of
gases,
emphasizing
the
good agreement
between
theory
and
experiment
in
the
limiting
case
that the
mutual interaction between
the molecules of
a gas
is
small in
comparison
to
the interaction between the
gas
and its container.
In the
first
comment during
the
discussion of Knudsen's
contribution,
Nernst claimed that Maxwell's
law
of
the
distri-
bution
of molecular velocities
might
have
to
be
changed
because the
quantum
hy-
pothesis implies
a
change
of the
law
of molecular
collisions.
(For
the
implications
of
the
quantum hypothesis
for molecular
collisions,
see
Einstein's lecture Einstein
1914
[Doc. 26],
p. 352.)
In
his
response
to
Nernst's
comment,
Einstein
shows
that
he
is
convinced of the
validity
of the Maxwell distribution and hence of the theorem of the
equipartition
of
energy,
at
least for the linear motion of
gas
molecules,
a
conviction
that also underlies his
contemporary
studies of radiation
in
interaction with
a
gas
(see
Einstein
and
Hopf
1910b
[Doc.
8]).
If the
mean
length
of the
path
of
a
molecule
is
small,
however,
Einstein
argues
that
the
validity
of the
equipartition
theorem
is
no
longer
assured. Einstein's
first comment
is
followed
by a
remark
by Warburg
on
the
Krakatoa
eruption
of
1883,
which showed
that
the motion of dust
particles
in the
higher atmosphere
deviated from Stokes's
law.
The discussion thus turned
to
the
problem
of small
spheres suspended
in
a
medium. This
problem,
touched
upon
in
Knudsen's
talk, was
at
that
time
particularly important
because of
its
role
in
Millikan's