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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 - Émile 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 - Rudolph 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 - Pieter 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

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