Article
Article
Statistical mechanics
Article By:
Dresden, Max Formerly, Institute for Theoretical Physics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York.
Last reviewed:January 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.652300
That branch of physics which endeavors to explain the macroscopic properties of a system on the basis of the properties of the microscopic constituents of the system. Usually the number of constituents is very large. All the characteristics of the constituents and their interactions are presumed known; it is the task of statistical mechanics (often called statistical physics) to deduce from this information the behavior of the system as a whole.
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