While we're on the subject of classic physics jokes, I give you the subtle opening of David Goodstein's States of Matter: Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of h

While we're on the subject of classic physics jokes, I give you the subtle opening of David Goodstein's States of Matter: Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics.