Pirogov, Nikolai Nikolaevich

Pirogov, Nikolai Nikolaevich 

Born Nov. 7, 1843, in St. Petersburg; died Nov. 16, 1891. Russian physicist. Son of N. I. Pirogov.

Pirogov was educated at home and subsequently attended lectures in Heidelberg, Berlin, and Oxford. A businessman, he became involved in scientific research in the 1880’s. His studies on the statistical basis of the second law of thermodynamics proved to be an original version of mathematical proof of L. Boltzmann’s law regarding the relationhip between entropy and the probability of a state. Pirogov developed a mathematical apparatus containing the rudiments of the theory of random processes. In the theory of real gases, he took into account triple, quadruple, and other multiple collisions of molecules. Pirogov was one of the first to recognize the significance of the probabilistic approach for the development of physics.

REFERENCE

Spasskii, B. I. “Ob issledovaniiakh N. N. Pirogova po statisticheskomu obosnovaniiu vtorogo nachala termodinamiki.” In Istoriia i metodologiia estestvennykh nauk, part 1: Fizika. Moscow, 1960.