Undecidability in Physics

 "... even a perfect and complete description of the microscopic properties of a material is not enough to predict its macroscopic behaviour" 

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16059

hitherto unconquered difficulties

 

"...hitherto unconquered difficulties..."

Reference:

http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/maxwell1.html

Scientists and Governments

Plato wrote an entire book to argue that Philosophers would provide the best governments that societies can aspire.

However, history provides cases where this assertion is simply wrong. Thus, Wolfgang Panofsky purportedly stated that: "confidence that science can perform on command is unwarranted."

Who was right most of the time?


References

Panofsky, W. (1993) Particles and Policy. AIP

Huygens: The Rationale of Games of Chance

"Even though in games moderated purely by chance, events tend to be uncertain, the odds to win or lose can be determined with certainty. Thus, inasmuch it is uncertain to verify for true or false if someone asserts that will get a six upon the first throw of a die, it nevertheless does submit to calculations and assessment how much likely it is for him to loose or to win. "

Huygens

References

De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae (page 521ff)

Gibbs vs Boltzmann Entropies

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Important observation: Entropy is a characteristic of a thermodynamic system, not of a physical system. Because a physical system admits of many thermodynamic systems. The thermodynamic state is defined via a set of parameters (or degrees of freedom).

Paper here