# The birth of statistical mechanics

by Shyan
Tags: birth, mechanics, statistical
 P: 866 This topic is about history of physics so I decided to post it in general physics section but it would be nice to have a history of physics(or maybe science)section. Anyway,during my statistical mechanics course,I realized QM is being used from the beginning,in contrast to other parts of physics where a classical theory is developed first and then there are quantum corrections.So I wondered whether there was a time that there was classical statistical mechanics.I know,you now tell "of course there was" but by classical statistical mechanics I mean not considering energy levels and degeneracies and considering energy as a continuous parameter. I found Boltzmann's 1877 paper at http://www.trivialanomaly.com/ and took a look at it.In it,boltzmann assumes that particles can take velocities of the form $\frac{p}{q}$ and also he assumes that the energy(he uses the term "alive force" which I think he means energy)of any particle is an integer multiple of a constant factor. Also in http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/9710007.pdf , it is said that Max Planck was inspired by Boltzmann's ideas in his theory about black body radiation. We know that maxwell independently had discovered maxwell-boltzmann distribution.I wanna know had maxwell also have the idea of energy quantization or he just derived the distribution experimentally? Also I will appreciate any ideas about classical statistical mechanics and whether there is a distribution which considers energy as a continuous parameter. Thanks