Abstract
The easiest way to take care of a paradox is to firmly close the eyes and claim that it does not exist — or does not exist anymore. This usually happens to the Gibbs paradox. To be sure the situation is complex. To begin with, there are two Gibbs paradoxes, one in thermodynamics of mixtures and the other one in statistical mechanics. The latter one is due to an overinterpretation of Boltzmann’s formula for the entropy, cf. Sects. 3.6 and 3.7.
Here we review the situation and show how the Gibbs paradox of statistical mechanics can be resolved. The argument provides the opportunity to speak about degenerate gases and the reason for degeneracy.
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Chapter 16 (Gibbs paradox and degenerate gases)
G. Gentile (1940). Osservazioni sopra le statistiche intermedie. Nuovo Cimento17, p. 493–497.
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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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(2005). Gibbs paradox and degenerate gases. In: Entropy and Energy. Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-32380-5_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-32380-5_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-24281-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32380-8
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