Re: [Phys-l] Gibbs paradox

[Carl Mungan <mungan@usna.edu>]

> I do like Jaynes' take on it.
>
> http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/gibbs.paradox.pdf

Of course Swendsen does in fact discuss does this very article in his own papers. Indeed Jaynes Eq. (9) is the crux of the problem. I note that Jaynes "fixes" the problem by imposing extensivity on entropy. Swendsen on the other hand denies that entropy has to be extensive. (He says it has to be additive, but there in no intrinsic reason entropy need be extensive.) I come back to my starting point: Has anyone taken a look at Swendsen's papers and have comments on it?

> Here is my difficulty: I assert it is absolutely and utterly impossible
> to distinguish individual particles of an elemental gas of one isotope
> from any reasonable gas agglomeration.

Are you sure you're not confounding the meaning of the adjectives "identical" and "indistinguishable"?

Carl