The Greatest Physicist You've Never Heard Of

Josiah WIllard Gib

Resources
“When Josiah Willard Gibbs died in 1903, a European physicist described him as “the greatest synthetic philosopher since Newton.” And this was before scientists really understood the full importance of his work.”
"…whose name not only in America but in the whole world will ever be reckoned among the most renowned theoretical physicists of all times."
Planck
Newspaper Headshot Drawing
Sanford, Robert. Buffalo News, May 23rd, 1959, page 18.
Newspaper Death Statement
NYT, April 29th, 1903, page 1
Copley Medal Newspaper
NYT, November 16th, 1901, page 9
Sr Death Newspaper
The Daily Exchange, Mar 28, 1961, page 2
Quora Answer that Inspired this Video
“Josiah Willard Gibbs and his Relation to Modern Science” - Fielding Garrison
Gibbs G.W. - Collected works. Thermodynamics. Volume 1-Longmans
Page 1: Graphical Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids
On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances
Josiah Willard Gibbs: The History of a Great Mind

[hggpi]

i like watching your videos when i feel depressed.

[CliffHanger-fguy]

Gibbs was already my answer to favorite American physicist.

Heaviside is my overall favorite. Gibbs is my favorite American.

I’ve heard good things about “A History of Vectorial Analysis.” It seems like it might go into some detail on Gibbs’ role.

Also, Paul J Nahin’s books on Heaviside is great if you ever decide to make a video on him.

[hamish_todd]

The statistical mechanics work is enough that I am glad to have seen your video. But we should never forgive Gibbs for choosing vector algebra over Clifford algebra and putting physics in that direction. Nobody is sure why; since he knew and even liked Clifford's work, he gave no reason for the decision.

[AR-dnej]

btw the helmholtz free energy is good for systems where the volume can remain constant and the gibbs free energy is good for systems where the pressure is constant. chemists like the gibbs free energy because we live under constant pressure conditions

[KipIngram]

People who want to tear Feynman down have always mystified me. From what I've been able to tell they're just emotional about it - Feynman had a gregarious, extroverted personality, and there just seems to be a lot of people who automatically hate people like that, perhaps because they're unable to be like that themselves and they're jealous. So their response is to denigrate, which is incredibly immature and shoddy. Feynman was absolutely incredible in terms of his overt achievements, but even more so in terms of his ability to TEACH. Anyone who's truly interested in physics should consume every bit of Feynman material they can lay their hands on.

[erichodge]

The background music is a little too loud, but I would like to commend you for choosing something interesting, instead of playing 8 bars of synth drivel over and over, which is what a lot of YouTubers do. Drives me nuts...

[bhangrafan]

Anyone who has studied physical chemistry is very familiar with Gibbs. The symbol for the ('Free') energy change of a reaction is G for Gibbs. His name looms large.

[johnhirshleifer]

Great video! Yale also awarded the first PhD (in physics) to an African American, Edward Bouchet, in 1876.

[jkzero]

This was a really interesting lesson, I was not aware of Gibbs' contributions beyond stat mech.

[denisdaly]

The music is fine as a choice, but far too loud. I prefer to listen to your argument. It is a shame thst this trend exist among Americans that the assumption is that no onevin their right mind would want to listen unless there was loud music. Thanks for introducing him to me.

[Higgsinophysics]

Leibniz.would like to speak with you about the intro :D !!
Just kidding, a lot if very interesting physics and history :D

[dylanwho]

seriously wtf!?!? Thank you for making this.

[damond]

Good Yankee that he was, Gibbs published his papers in the Annals of the Connecticut Academy of Sciences, so for a long time nobody in Europe read them. (It didn’t help that his original notation was a bit obscure.) Many fundamental equations of thermodynamics are named for the first person after Gibbs to rediscover them. These now customarily carry double-barrelled names, Gibbs-Helmholtz equation, Gibbs-Duhem equation, etc. Gibbs' burial site in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven is easy to visit.

[TruthSurge]

5:08 you say "world" but write "universe". ? which is it? The energy of the planet we reside upon is certainly not constant and we cannot know for sure if there is input into what we call the universe from another universe?

[thomasachee]

Our prayer before tests in chemical engineering school:

Our Professor
Who art in equilibrium with his environment
Cited be thy name
Thy activity coefficient equal to one
Thy ideal work be done
In lab as it is in theory
Forgive us this day our non-idealities
As we forgive those who create entropy against us
Lead us not into assumption
But deliver us from error.
For thine is the engine,
the power, and big G.
For ever and ever.
Ah-CHEN


Statistical Mechanics fucks.

[Prof_Hazra_IIT]

Edward Witten, hands down. His influence in modern mathematical Physics is most profound. His contributions are so fundamental and everlasting, that even few 100 years down the line, he will be talked in the same vein as Newton and Einstein.

[proudirani]

The greatest American physicist was John Bardeen. He is the ONLY person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics TWICE; one for theory of superconductivity and the other one for invention of transistor. We all should know how important transistors are!

[to_bg]

I was thinking of Shannon, but you one-upped me. Good to see Gibbs.

[bhbr-xbpo]

I could tell from the thumbnail who you mean. I've been a long-time lonely Gibbs fanboy :D

[naakatube]

Please do math and physics textbook reviews!