Page:Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt.pdf/9

 In the following the equation just found will be interpreted in terms of the principle introduced by Mr. Boltzmann that says that the entropy of a system is a function of the probability of its state.

Molecular Theoretical investigation of the Volume Dependence of the Entropy of Gases and Dilute Solutions
In calculating Entropy on the grounds of molecular theory the word "probability" is often used in a meaning that isn't covered by the definition in probability theory. Especially the "cases of equal probability" are often set by hypothesis, where the applied theoretical representation is sufficiently definite to deduce probabilities without fixing them by hypothesis. I will show in a separate work that in considerations of thermal processes one obtains a complete result with the so-called "statistical probability". This way I hope to remove a logical difficulty that is in the way of fully implementing Boltzmann's principle. Here however only its general formulation and application in quite specific cases will be given.

When it's meaningful to talk about the probability of a state of a system, and additionally every increase of entropy can be described as a transition to a more probable state, the entropy S1 of a system is a function of the probability W1 of its instantaneous state. In the case of two systems S1 and S2, one can state:



\begin{align} S_1 & = \phi_1(W_1), \\ S_2 & = \phi_2(W_2). \\ \end{align} $$

If one considers these systems as a single system with entropy S and probability W, then:


 * $$S = S_1 + S_2 = \phi(W) $$

and


 * $$W = W_1 \cdot W_2.$$