15

not increase infinitely with the time, a case which for obvi-
ous reasons cannot represent a stationary state in the sense
defined above. On account of this, the discussion of the
mechanical transformability of the stationary states can, as
pointed out by Ehrenfest,1 ) for systems of one degree of
freedom be based on a mechanical theorem about periodic
systems due to Boltzmann and originally applied by this
author in a discussion of the bearing of mechanics on the ex-
planation of the laws of thermodynamics. For the sake of the
considerations in the following sections it will be convenient
here to give the proof in a form which differs slightly from
that given by Ehrenfest, and which takes also regard to
the modifications in the ordinary laws of mechanics claimed
by the theory of relativity.
Consider for the sake of generality a conservative me-
chanical system of s degrees of freedom, the motion of which
is governed by Hamilton’s equations:
dpk ∂E dqk ∂E
=− , = , (k = 1, . . . , s) (4)
dt ∂qk dt ∂pk
where E is the total energy considered as a function of the
generalised positional coordinates q1 , . . . , qs and the corre-
sponding canonically conjugated momenta p1 , . . . , ps . If the
velocities are so small that the variation in the mass of the
particles due to their velocities can be neglected, the p’s are
1
) P. Ehrenfest, loc. cit. Proc. Acad. Amsterdam, XVI, p. 591
(1914).