This physicist showed that his namesake “H” variable tends to decrease as equilibrium is approached. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this physicist who names that “H” theorem, and who proposed the Stosszahlansatz to derive his namesake transport equation.
ANSWER: Ludwig Boltzmann [or Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann]
[10h] Boltzmann’s theory of statistical mechanics relies on a hypothesis named for this property which asserts that all microstates corresponding to a single state are equally likely over a long period of time.
ANSWER: ergodicity [accept ergodic hypothesis]
[10e] The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution maximizes this quantity across all particle distributions. Boltzmann’s definition of this quantity as k times the log of the number of microstates appears on his tombstone.
ANSWER: entropy
<IC, Physics>