Page:Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics (1902).djvu/122

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
98
CERTAIN IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS

corresponding to other than very small values of may be regarded as a vanishing quantity.

This gives

(313)
or
(314)
From this equation, with (289), (300) and (309), we may determine the value of corresponding to any given value of , when is known as function of .

Any two systems may be regarded as together forming a third system. If we have or given as function of for any two systems, we may express by quadratures and for the system formed by combining the two. If we distinguish by the suffixes , , the quantities relating to the three systems, we have easily from the definitions of these quantities

(315)
(316)
where the double integral is to be taken within the limits
and the variables in the single integrals are connected by the last of these equations, while the limits are given by the first two, which characterize the least possible values of and respectively.

It will be observed that these equations are identical in form with those by which and are derived from or and or , except that they do not admit in the general case those transformations which result from substituting for or the particular functions which these symbols always represent.