References

1

Note that I did not say that continuum systems do not have fluctuations.

2

You can actually make motion pictures this way. The Last Starfighter was apparently the first full-length non-cartoon film that completely replaced models with computer output.

3

The usage phase as a synonym for ``state'' appears in Gibbs' work, but has now been superseded by ``state''.

4

C. A. Croxton, Statistical Mechanics of the Liquid Surface, Wiley-Interscience, Chichester (1980)

5

Garwin, Phys. Rev. Lett. xx, yyyy (19xx)

6

The difficulty with gravity is that it is a long-range (1/r) attractive potential, in which charges of only one sign exist. The long range nature of the potential causes convergence problems with ensemble averages. While statistical mechanics can handle systems with a Coulomb potential -- as treated below -- the usual treatment applies to electroneutral systems, in which the total electrical charge of the system is zero. Gravitational charges (masses) are all of the same sign, so interesting gravitational systems do not have zero net gravitational charge.

7

R. C. Tolman, The Principles of Statistical Mechanics, Oxford University Press (1938); Dover (1979).

8

I am using ``countable'' in its strict sense, as used in real analysis. While the number of integers, and the number of real numbers, are both infinite, there is a significant sense in which the number of real numbers is far larger than the number of integers. In contrast, there are as many integers as there are fractions.

9

T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, (1962) discusses these components in greater detail.