19

From (6) and (7) it follows that I will remain constant

during the slow establishment of the small external field, if
the motion corresponding to a constant value of the field is
periodic. If next the external field corresponding to Ω is con-
sidered as an inherent part of the system, it will be seen in the
same way that I will remain unaltered during the establish-
ment of a new small external field, and so on. Consequently
I will be invariant for any finite transformation of the system
which is sufficiently slowly performed, provided the motion
at any moment during the process is periodic and the effect
of the variation is calculated on ordinary mechanics.
Before we proceed to the applications of this result we
shall mention a simple consequence of (6) for systems for
which every orbit is periodic independent of the initial con-
ditions. In that case we may for the varied motion take an
undisturbed motion of the system corresponding to slightly
different initial conditions. This gives δE constant, and
from (6) we get therefore

δE = ω δI, (8)
1
where ω = is the frequency of the motion. This equation
σ
forms a simple relation between the variations in E and I for
periodic systems, which will be often used in the following.
Returning now to systems of one degree of freedom, we
shall take our starting point from Planck’s original theory
of a linear harmonic vibrator. According to this theory the
stationary states of a system, consisting of a particle execut-