Page:Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics (1902).djvu/77

Rh Therefore  and

These determinants are all functions of the $$q$$'s alone. The last is evidently the Hessian or determinant formed of the second differential coefficients of the kinetic energy with respect to $$\dot q_1,\ldots \dot q_n$$. We shall denote it by $$\Delta_{\dot q}$$. The reciprocal determinant which is the Hessian of the kinetic energy regarded as function of the $$p$$'s, we shall denote by $$\Delta_p$$.

If we set and