physicist James Clerk Maxwell formulated the Maxwell distribution of molecular velocities, which gave the proportion of molecules having a certain velocity in a specific range. This was the first-ever statistical law in physics. Maxwell also gave the first mechanical argument that molecular collisions entail an equalization of temperatures and hence a tendency towards equilibrium. Five years later, in 1864, Ludwig Boltzmann, a young student in Vienna, came across Maxwell's paper and spent much of his life developing the subject further. Statistical mechanics was initiated in the 1870s with the work of Boltzmann, much of which was collectively published in his 1896 Lectures on Gas Theory. Boltzmann's original papers on the statistical interpretation of thermodynamics, the H-theorem, transport theory, thermal equilibrium, the equation of state of gases, and similar subjects, occupy about 2,000 pages in the proceedings of the Vienna Academy and other societies. Boltzmann introduced the concept of an equilibrium statistical ensemble and also investigated for the first time non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, with his H-theorem. The term "statistical mechanics" was coined by the American mathematical physicist J. Willard Gibbs in 1884. "Probabilistic mechanics" might today seem a more appropriate term, but "statistical mechanics" is firmly entrenched. Shortly before his death, Gibbs published in 1902 Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics, a book which formalized statistical mechanics as a fully general approach to address all mechanical systems—macroscopic or microscopic, gaseous or non-gaseous. Gibbs' methods were initially derived in the framework classical mechanics, however they were of such generality that they were found to adapt easily to the later quantum mechanics, and still form the foundation of statistical mechanics to this day. See also Thermodynamics: non-equilibrium, chemical Mechanics: classical, quantum Probability, statistical ensemble Numerical methods: Monte Carlo method, molecular dynamics Statistical physics Quantum statistical mechanics List of notable textbooks in statistical mechanics List of important publications in statistical mechanics Laplace transform Notes References External links Philosophy of Statistical Mechanics article by Lawrence Sklar for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Sklogwiki - Thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and the computer simulation of materials. SklogWiki is particularly orientated towards liquids and soft condensed matter. Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics by Richard Fitzpatrick Lecture Notes in Statistical Mechanics and Mesoscopics by Doron Cohen taught by Leonard Susskind. Vu-Quoc, L., Configuration integral (statistical mechanics), 2008. this wiki site is down; see this article in the web archive on 2012 April 28. Statistical mechanics Thermodynamics