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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Boltzmann Ludwig Eduard. Biography of the scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
Ludwig Boltzmann was without a doubt the greatest scientist and thinker that Austria has given the world. Even during his lifetime, Boltzmann, despite the position of an outcast in scientific circles, was recognized as a great scientist, he was invited to lecture in many countries. And yet, some of his ideas remain a mystery even today. Boltzmann himself wrote about himself: "The idea that fills my mind and activity is the development of theory." And Max Laue later clarified this idea as follows: "His ideal was to combine all physical theories in a single picture of the world." Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann was born in Vienna on February 20, 1844, just on the night of the last day of Shrovetide on Wednesday, from which Great Lent began. Boltzmann used to jokingly say that because of the date of his birth, he received a character that is characterized by sharp transitions from jubilation to grief. His father, Ludwig Georg Boltzmann, worked in the Imperial Ministry of Finance. He died of tuberculosis when Ludwig was only fifteen years old. Ludwig Boltzmann studied brilliantly, and his mother encouraged his diverse interests, giving him a comprehensive upbringing. So, in Linz, Boltzmann took piano lessons from the famous composer Anton Bruckner. All his life he loved music and often arranged home concerts in his house with friends. In 1863, Boltzmann entered the University of Vienna, where he studied mathematics and physics. Then Maxwellian electrodynamics was the latest achievement of theoretical physics. It is not surprising that Ludwig's first article was also devoted to electrodynamics. However, already in his second work, published in 1866 in the article "On the mechanical significance of the second law of thermodynamics", where he showed that the temperature corresponds to the average kinetic energy of gas molecules, Boltzmann's scientific interests were determined. In the autumn of 1866, two months before receiving his doctorate, Boltzmann was admitted to the Institute of Physics as an assistant professor. In 1868, Boltzmann was granted the right to lecture at universities, and a year later he became an ordinary professor of mathematical physics at the University of Graz. During this period, in addition to developing his theoretical ideas, he was also engaged in experimental studies of the relationship between the dielectric constant and the refractive index in order to obtain confirmation of Maxwell's unified theory of electrodynamics and optics. For his experiments, he twice took short leave from the university to work in the laboratories of Bunsen and Königsberger in Heidelberg and of Helmholtz and Kirchhoff in Berlin. The results of these studies were published in 1873-1874. Boltzmann also took an active part in the planning of the new physics laboratory in Graz, of which he later became director. This was the heyday of Boltzmann's scientific activity. However, he lacked a wide audience, he felt the need to share his ideas not only with students who eagerly listened to the young brilliant professor, but also with his fellow scientists. And Graz was too small a town for that. That is why in 1873 Ludwig Boltzmann returned to Vienna as a professor of mathematics. Shortly before leaving, he met his future wife, Henriette von Eigentler. Boltzmann's popularity in Vienna was incredible. For his lectures, the largest audiences were always chosen, most often assembly halls. And still, everyone who wanted to get in could not. Before the lecture began, the ministers brought in three black boards. The largest one was placed in the center, and two smaller ones - on the sides. And Boltzmann came out. Tall, with a massive head crowned with finely curly brown hair, broad-cheeked, with a stiff, stubborn beard, with eyes deeply hidden under thick round glasses - laughing and sad at the same time, he went out to the pulpit, stooping and embarrassed by his appearance, his huge, forever red nose. He did not return the applause in any way. He stood with his back to the audience and waited for silence in the hall. And in this silence, he hardly squeezed out ordinary, boring and obligatory words: "So, last time we stopped ..." And for fifteen minutes in a loud voice he explained the contents of the previous lecture, writing out the final formulas on the left blackboard in a beautiful, clear handwriting. And he read a four-year course covering mechanics, hydromechanics, the theory of elasticity, electricity, magnetism, the kinetic theory of gases and ... philosophy. Having finished his last lecture, he returned to the pulpit, took off his glasses, and stood in silence for a few seconds, his head bowed. And suddenly, in dead silence, words resembling a prayer were heard: “Forgive me if, before I start lecturing, I ask you something for myself personally, which is most important to me - your trust, your disposition, your love, in a word, the greatest thing you can give is yourself…” And he began to lecture. His name was surrounded by legends. Yes, he himself, with his childish spontaneity and enthusiasm for the most prosaic things, gave abundant food to these anecdotal legends. Suddenly, one day, the whole of Graz was excited by the incredible news: Mr. Professor of Experimental Physics personally bought a cow in the market and solemnly led her through the whole town by a rope to his villa. Then, placing the "sacred animal" with due honors, the professor of physics went to the professor of zoology, whom he consulted for a very long time on the process of milking. Or suddenly, early in the morning in winter, the whole of Graz converged to the rink, where Boltzmann, along with the children, mastered skating. But the most invariable passion of the professor of physics was music. At the Vienna Opera, a box was permanently assigned to Boltzmann and his family; and at home the professor of physics organized daily chamber music evenings, and he himself invariably played the part on the piano. Of the works performed by Boltzmann in Vienna, the article "On the Theory of Elasticity under External Actions" (1874), where he formulated the theory of linear viscoelasticity, deserves special attention. He described this phenomenon using integral equations, which are an important contribution to theoretical rheology. Alas, administrative work, which was much more in Vienna than in Graz, was a heavy burden for the scientist. He was attracted by the Department of Experimental Physics in Graz. Here he could have his own laboratory and lecture on physics, and not on mathematics, as in Vienna. There was less bureaucracy in Graz. But besides that, Boltzmann was going to get married. It was very difficult to find a suitable apartment in Vienna, and his future wife was from Graz. In 1876 Boltzmann took over as director of the Physics Institute in Graz and remained in that position for fourteen years. As early as 1871, Boltzmann pointed out that the second law of thermodynamics could only be derived from classical mechanics using the theory of probability. In 1877, Boltzmann's famous article on the relationship between entropy and the probability of a thermodynamic state appeared in the Vienna Communications on Physics. The scientist showed that the entropy of a thermodynamic state is proportional to the probability of this state and that the probabilities of states can be calculated on the basis of the ratio between the numerical characteristics of the distributions of molecules corresponding to these states. That is, if a sufficiently large system is left without external intervention for a sufficiently long time, then the probability that we will find it after this time in an equilibrium state is incomparably greater than the probability that it will be in any non-equilibrium state. This so-called "ash-theorem" became the pinnacle of Boltzmann's theory of the universe. The formula of this beginning was later carved as an epitaph on the monument above his grave. This formula is very similar in essence to Charles Darwin's law of natural selection. Only Boltzmann's "Ash-theorem" shows how the "life" of the Universe itself is born and proceeds. The German physicist R. Clausius, who formulated the second law of thermodynamics in 1850 and later, in 1865, introduced the concept of entropy, was at one time a very popular figure. The conclusions drawn by him from the second law about the inevitability of heat death were taken into service not only by many physicists. They were mainly addressed by philosophers who received powerful, seemingly undeniable arguments in favor of idealistic concepts of the beginning and end of the world, including in favor of empirio-criticism, the teachings of E. Mach and the "energetic" teachings of W. Ostwald. Indomitable Ludwig Boltzmann declared with his “ash-theorem”: “Heat death is a bluff. No end of the world is foreseen. energies, as the Ostwaldians believe, but from atoms and molecules, and the second law of thermodynamics should be applied not to some kind of "ether", spirit or energy substance, but to specific atoms and molecules. Around the "ash-theorem" of Ludwig Boltzmann, discussions instantly flared up no less in intensity than on heat death. The "Ash-theorem" and the fluctuation hypothesis put forward on its basis were dissected with all care and scrupulousness and, as expected, they found gaping, unforgivable, it would seem, for such a great scientist as Boltzmann, flaws. It turned out that if we accept Boltzmann's hypothesis as true, then we must accept for faith such a monstrous assumption that does not fit into any framework of common sense: sooner or later, or rather, already now, somewhere in the Universe there must be processes in the opposite direction to the second direction, that is, heat must move from colder bodies to hotter ones! Isn't that absurd. Boltzmann defended this "absurdity", he was deeply convinced that such a course of development of the Universe is the most natural, for it is an inevitable consequence of its atomic structure. It is unlikely that the "ash-theorem" would have received such fame if it had been put forward by some other scientist. But it was put forward by Boltzmann, who was able not only to see the world hidden from others behind the curtain, but who knew how to defend it with all the passion of a genius armed with fundamental knowledge of both physics and philosophy. The culmination of the dramatic collision between the materialist physicist and the Machists must apparently be considered the congress of natural scientists in Lübeck in 1895, where Ludwig Boltzmann gave his friend-enemies a pitched battle. He won, but as a result, after the congress, he felt an even greater emptiness around him. In 1896, Boltzmann wrote an article "On the inevitability of atomistics in the physical sciences", where he put forward mathematical objections to Ostwald's energyism. Until 1910, the very existence of atomistics was constantly under threat. Boltzmann fought alone and was afraid that his life's work would be forgotten. In the preface to the second part of his lectures on the theory of gases, he wrote in 1898: “In my opinion, it will be a great tragedy for science if (just as it happened with the wave theory of light due to the authority of Newton) at least for a while the theory gases will be forgotten because of the current hostility towards her. I am aware that now I am the only one who, albeit weakly, is trying to swim against the current. And yet, I can help to ensure that, when the theory of gases is brought back to life, not too many rediscoveries have to be made." In 1890, Boltzmann accepted an offer to take the chair of theoretical physics at the University of Munich and could finally take up teaching his favorite subject. During the time that he taught experimental physics here, he used the most illustrative mechanical models to illustrate theoretical concepts. Numerous students from all over the world came to Munich to study under Boltzmann. The only weakness of his position was that the Bavarian government at that time did not pay pensions to university professors; meanwhile, Boltzmann's eyesight was deteriorating more and more, and he was worried about the future of the family. With his brilliant, by no means correct, as was customary at that time, performances in scientific discussions, Boltzmann quickly gained a reputation as a person with a restless, difficult character; he did not know how to be condescending even to his friends when he saw their delusions, although he suffered from his harshness. For Boltzmann, there were no compromises in science. And if he was deprived of the opportunity to fight honestly, he parted with the most honorary positions without regret. From Munich, Boltzmann returned to the University of Vienna, and a few years later moved to Leipzig. In the autumn of 1902, Boltzmann returned to Vienna. And everywhere, in all universities, he waged an exhausting struggle for materialistic physics, for atomism. It was, especially in the last period of his life, in fact, the struggle of a lone scientist with the greatest physicists of that time, the heads of the most influential scientific schools. In February 1904, his wife wrote to her daughter Ida, who was staying in Leipzig and finishing high school there: "Father is getting worse every day. I have lost faith in the future. I hoped our life would be better in Vienna." Boltzmann's health suffered from constant disputes with opponents. His eyesight deteriorated to such an extent that it became difficult for him to read; had to hire an employee who read scientific articles to him; his wife prepared his manuscripts for printing. His poor health could not for a long time withstand such a huge teaching load, which was combined with scientific work. Even a rest in Duino, near Trieste, did not bring him relief from his painful illness. Boltzmann fell into a deep depression and committed suicide on September 5, 1906. It is very regrettable that he did not live to see the resurrection of atomism and died with the thought that everyone had forgotten about the kinetic theory. However, many of Boltzmann's ideas have already found their solution in such amazing discoveries as the ultramicroscope, the Doppler effect, gas turbine engines, and the release of the energy of the atomic nucleus. But these are all particulars in the picture of the world that Boltzmann saw and described, separate consequences of the atomic structure of the world. Already in an 1872 paper, Boltzmann introduced the concept of discrete energy levels, which paved the way for the creation of quantum mechanics. However, his statistical method played an even more important role in the development of modern physics. As if in anticipation of the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics, he wrote in 1898 in his lectures on the theory of gases: “I still need to mention the possibility that the fundamental equations of motion of individual molecules will turn out to be just approximate formulas giving average values ... and obtained only as a result of long series observations based on the theory of probability". Many times his sincerity faced treachery, but Boltzmann, nevertheless, until the end of his life retained faith in friendship and love. Poems and music were for him a kind of building blocks in a unified theory of the universe, which included the laws of physics, and the teachings of Darwin, whom Boltzmann idolized, and his favorite philosophy. “The fate of Ludwig Boltzmann as one of the founders of modern physics,” wrote E. Boda, “can only be compared with the fate of the great creator of sets, Georg Cantor. brilliant people." Author: Samin D.K.
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