Timeline of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and random processes

Timeline of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and random processes

1761 - Joseph Black discovers that ice absorbs heat without changing temperature when melting

1798 - Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson) has the idea that heat is a form of energy

1822 - Joseph Fourier formally introduces the use of dimensions for physical quantities in his Theorie Analytique de la Chaleur

1824 - Sadi Carnot scientifically analyzes the efficiency of steam engines

1827 - Robert Brown discovers the Brownian motion of pollen and dye particles in water

1834 - �mile Clapeyron presents a formulation of the second law of thermodynamics

1843 - James Joule experimentally finds the mechanical equivalent of heat

1848 - Lord Kelvin discovers the absolute zero point of temperature

1852 - James Joule and Lord Kelvin demonstrate that a rapidly expanding gas cools

1859 - James Clerk Maxwell discovers the distribution law of molecular velocities

1870 - Rudolf Clausius proves the scalar virial theorem

1872 - Ludwig Boltzmann states the Boltzmann equation for the temporal development of distribution functions in phase space

1874 - Lord Kelvin formally states the second law of thermodynamics

1876 - Josiah Gibbs begins a two-year-long series of papers which discusses phase equilibria, the free energy as the driving force behind chemical reactions, and chemical thermodynamics in general

1879 - Jožef Stefan observes that the total radiant flux from a blackbody is proportional to the fourth power of its temperature and states the Stefan-Boltzmann law

1884 - Ludwig Boltzmann derives the Stefan-Boltzmann blackbody radiant flux law from thermodynamic considerations

1888 - Henri-Louis Le Chatelier states that the response of a chemical system perturbed from equilbrium will be to counteract the perturbation

1893 - Wilhelm Wien discovers the displacement law for a blackbody's maximum specific intensity

1905 - Albert Einstein mathematically analyzes the Brownian motion

1906 - Walther Nernst presents a formulation of the third law of thermodynamics

1910 - Albert Einstein and Marian Smoluchowski find the Einstein-Smoluchowski formula for the attenuation coefficient due to density fluctuations in a gas

1916 - Sydney Chapman and David Enskog systematically develop a kinetic theory of gases

1919 - James Jeans discovers that the dynamical constants of motion determine the distribution function for a system of particles

1920 - Meghnad Saha states his ionization equation

1923 - Peter Debye and Erich Huckel publish a statistical treatment of the dissociation of electrolytes

1928 - J.B. Johnson discovers Johnson noise in a resistor

1928 - Harry Nyquist derives the fluctuation-dissipation relationship for a resistor to explain Johnson noise

1942 - J.L. Doob states his theorem on Gaussian-Markoff processes

1957 - A.S. Kompaneets derives his Compton scattering Fokker-Planck equation