. The constant
is therefore a velocity from which most of the molecules differ but little. The development shows that this self-same distribution exists for every straight line that can be drawn in the volume under consideration.
BOLTZMANN, in his Gas Theorie, has shown that for such a state the "number of complexions" is a maximum, that is, the entropy is then a maximum.
From the preceding expression (5) follows that the kinetic energy
of the system is
where