Bust of Ludwig Boltzmann in Vienna, taken by Thomas
Schneider in 2002.

Boltzmann's Grave

Thanks to Gerd B. Müller in 2002 I visted Ludwig Boltzmann's Tomb in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetary), Vienna, Austria.

The Tomb is famous because it gives the simplest entropy formula

S = k. log W
above his bust statue. My photographs have been used in a number of publications and they are freely available for that use. To see all of the available images go to
the Boltzmann Tomb image page

Clicking on an image will bring you to the largest available image - there are no larger ones and these are the original photographs.

The most popular one is probably P7140525.JPG: Vienna, Austria. Boltzmann's Tomb in the Zentralfriedhof (Central
Cemetary). The Tomb is in Gruppe 14 C Grab No 1 (group 14 grave number
1). Photos by Tom Schneider or of him by Gerd Muller. 2002 July 14.
This image: bust of Boltzmann.

2022 Jan 26: I came across this surprising video by a woman who makes rather clear historic videos about science.

Boltzmann's Entropy Equation: A History from Clausius to Planck
Jan 20, 2020
Kathy Loves Physics & History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr_gv5CKB1Y
"Boltzmann's entropy formula was created by Max Planck in 1900! So, why did Planck create this equation and how did it end up on Boltzmann's grave? I used primary sources to explain the history of this famous and confusing equation."
The quote at 13:36 in is quite telling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr_gv5CKB1Y&t=13m36s
I have put the complete quote at
http://users.fred.net/tds/lab/quotes.html#Planck2022Jan25

This is particularly interesting to me because Planck "suspected that the fundamental connection lies in the dependence of entropy on energy" while my work connects information (i.e. a decrease of entropy) and energy (see my paper emmgeo) which is, as with Planck, being almost completely ignored for more than 10 years ... leaving me to "work out my calculation completely at my leisure, with absolute thoroughness, without fear of interference or competition." ...


If you are interested in reproducing the images, feel free to use them. I would appreciate a citation such as:

Photograph by Thomas Schneider, 2002, https://alum.mit.edu/www/toms/boltzmann.html

Please tell me when and where an image is published and I might start a list here.

You can write to me at toms@alum.mit.edu .

color bar Small icon for Theory of Molecular Machines: physics,
chemistry, biology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory,
genetic engineering, sequence logos, information theory,
electrical engineering, thermodynamics, statistical
mechanics, hypersphere packing, gumball machines, Maxwell's
Daemon, limits of computers


Schneider Lab

origin: 2012 Nov 08
updated: 2022 Jan 30: source of the equation
color bar