In an article (co-authored with Lena Zuchowski) appearing in an edited collection of works on Tatiana Afanassiewa, Dr. Luczak highlights and discusses the Ehrenfests’ use of toy models to explore irreversibility in statistical mechanics. In particular, the paper explores their urn and P–Q models and highlight that, while the former was primarily used to provide a simple counter-example to Zermelo’s objection to Boltzmann’s statistical mechanical underpinning of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the latter was intended to highlight the role and importance of the Stoßzahlansatz (molecular chaos) as a cause of the tendency of systems to exhibit entropy increase. Luczak and Zuchowski explain the sense in which these models are toy models and why agents can use them, as the Ehrenfests’ did, to carry out this important work, despite the fact that they do not represent any real system.
Luczak, J. and Zuchowski, L. 2021. The Ehrenfests' Use of Toy Models to Explore Irreversibility in Statistical Mechanics." In Uffink J., Valente G., Werndl C., Zuchowski L. (eds), The Legacy of Tatjana Afanassjewa. Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, Vol. 7, Springer.