250
DOC.
10
COMMENTS ON P. HERTZ'S PAPERS
Doc. 10
Comments
on
P.
Hertz's
Papers:
"On the Mechanical Foundations
of
Thermodynamics"1
by
A.
Einstein.
[Annalen
der
Physik
34
(1911): 175-176]
In
his
superb papers
titled
as above,
Mr. Hertz
has
criticized two
passages
in
my
papers
[3]
on
the
same topic.
In the
following,
I will
briefly
comment
on
these
criticisms, noting
that
what
is
said here
is
the result
of
an
oral
discussion with Mr.
Hertz,
in which
we came
to
a
perfect agreement regarding
both
points
in
question.
1.
In the
penultimate
section of
§13
of
his second
paper,
Hertz
criticizes
a
derivation
[4]
that
I
gave
of the
entropy
law
for irreversible
processes.
I
consider
this criticism
totally
valid. I
was
not satisfied with
my
derivation
even
then, which
is
why
I
soon
thereafter
[5]
produced a
second
derivation,
also cited
by
Mr.
Hertz.
2.
The
comments
contained
in
§4
of
his first
paper
that
are
directed
against an
argument
about thermal
equilibrium
contained
in
my
first
paper
in
question2
are
based
on a misunderstanding
caused
by an
all-too terse
and
insufficiently
careful formulation
[6]
of that
argument.
However,
since
the
topic
has
been
adequately
elucidated
in works
by
other
authors,
and
since, moreover, a
detailed
discussion
of
this
specific
point is
not
likely
to
claim much
interest,
I
do
not wish to
elaborate
on
it
here.
I
only
wish to
add that the road taken
by
Gibbs in his
book,
which consists in
one's
starting
directly
from the
canonical
ensemble,
[7]
is
in
my
opinion preferable
to
the road
I took.
Had
I
been
familiar with Gibbs's
book
[8]
at
that
time,
I would not have
published
those
papers
at
all,
but
would have
limited
myself
to
the
discussion
of
just
a
few
points.
Zurich,
October
1910. (Received
on
30
November
1910)
[1]
1
A. Einstein, Ann.
d.
Phys.
9
(1902):
425
and
11
(1903):
176.
[2]
2
P.
Hertz,
Ann.
d.
Phys.
33
(1910):
225
and
537.