IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head (Meaning: My Warped, Personal Opinions and Musings)
From the Author:
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.
I invite you to interact with everyone, learn, and have as much fun as possible!
For my returning online friends, "It's always great to see you again!"
Poor Ludwig Boltzmann - A once prominent physicist who, in despair, committed suicide (or How today's Internet could've saved his life!)
Who was Ludwig Boltzmann?
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (February 20, 1844 – September 5, 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher whose greatest achievement was in the development of statistical mechanics, which explains and predicts how the properties of atoms (such as mass, charge, and structure) determine the physical properties of matter (such as viscosity, thermal conductivity, and diffusion).
Vilified by the Physics Community for Believing in the "atom"
The subject of "atoms" has been around since the times of the ancient Greek philosophers.
Both Plato and Democritus had treatises on the atom, but were in direct conflict with each other. Plato's view was that the atom was "Idealistic" in nature, while Democritus' beliefs were the opposite - "Materialistic" behaviors, causes, and effects.
In spite of Plato and Democritus, the scientific community of the late 1800's, upheld the longstanding belief that the atom was purely an abstract philosophical construct; and therefore, not germane to the real world, nor worthy of investigation by scientists.
Theoretical Physics had yet to be recognized as an honorable endeavor.
Consequently, publicly touting the existence of atoms was considered a waste of time - a profligate's pursuit.
Such behavior was guaranteed to be the death knell for any physicist's career.
Why?
Because technologies or methods to measure and observe the behavior of these so-called tiny, invisible "atoms" were nonexistent; therefore, every sane and respectable physicist was expected to ignore atoms and concentrate his efforts exclusively on observable phenomena.
Adding insult to Boltzmann's injury, in the eyes of the scientific community, the act of claiming imaginary objects as being real was not only highly presumptuous, it bordered on the sacrilegious!
That's because the members of the "Physics' Illuminati" repeatedly proclaimed that atomic theory reduced "God's miraculous creation" down to a trivial game of bumper cars (collisions) between tiny, unseen inanimate objects.
Sadly, it was this prevailing negative attitude that resulted in Boltzmann and his small group of supporters ("the atomists") to be stigmatized as "unholy, non-religious men".
The Straw that broke the Camel's Back
Already a victim of chronic mental illness, the ostracization of Boltzmann by the Physics community was the "straw that broke the camel's back" and drove him into deep depression.
Driven over the edge into a state of irreversible despondency, he committed suicide by hanging himself on September 5, 1906.
Einstein Vindicates Boltzmann - But the News was "Too Little, Too Late"
Einstein's flurry of historic physics papers (the "Annus Mirabilis Papers) were published in 1905.
One of the lesser known papers proved the existence of the atom by explaining the "Brownian Effect.
See: "How Einstein Proved the Size and Existence of Atoms"
The paper totally verified Boltzmann's beliefs about the atom.
Sadly, in spite of the 1905 publication date, Boltzmann never heard about Einstein's paper proving the existence of atoms - information that definitely could have stopped him from killing himself.
My Rationale - Why this Tragedy Happened
Did you notice the date of Boltzmann's suicide (1906)?
It is one year AFTER Einstein's paper - the "Explaining the Brownian Efffect" paper proving the existence of atoms and thoroughly vindicating Boltzman's theories about the atom.
I believe there are three reasons that could explain why Boltzmann didn't get the word about Einstein's paper:
Clumsy and slow communication channels.
Expensive newspaper production processes.
Profit-driven conservation of page space and a high degree of scrutiny over which topics should be put into print and disseminated.
Let me expand a little on those reasons for clarification...
At the time of Einstein's papers and Boltzman's suicide, spreading news around the world was very slow, cumbersome, and overwhelmingly through print via a few select newspapers per region.
(Note: Although Samuel Morse's invention - the telegraph - had been around since the 1830's, it was still fraught with frequent transmission problems; resulting in a reputation for being unreliable.
Furthermore, telegrams charged customers per word, making it even more expensive than the pricey newspapers from the prestigious, globally recognized newspaper companies.)
Because of the cost of doing business, newspaper companies scrutinized what they chose to put into print.
Unless it was Earth shattering news, articles about physics were not considered a "hot topic" with mass appeal; and therefore, often were passed over as candidates for inclusion into the news.
To add to Boltzmann's perfect storm, the flurry of Einstein's papers forced many newspaper companies to choose which papers to commit page space to (or not).
In other words, the combination of page space conservation and the relative unimportant, low-impact opinion of Einstein's "Explaining the Brownian Effect" paper (as compared to the other papers of the "Annus Mirabilis") resulted in most newspaper companies choosing to delay (or cancel) devoting any resources (e.g., interviewer/reporter salary, editor time spent polishing the reporter's submission, newspaper ink, source paper, transportation costs, etc.) towards developing a story on it.
Conclusion
If today's Internet - with it's free, instant, and worldwide news channels - existed in Boltzmann's day, it's more than reasonable to believe that he would have gotten the news in time to prevent his suicide.
And who knows where our understanding of atoms might be if Boltzmann had lived longer?
By JaiChai
Really Appreciate You Stopping By.
Truly hope to see you again!
About the Author -
Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.
After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.
Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).
He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, long-term girlfriend and three dogs.
