Schrödinger argued that it is not only the gas laws that derive their accuracy from the statistical properties of large numbers; all the laws of classical physics and chemistry—including the laws governing the dynamics of fluids or chemical reactions—are based on this “averaging of large numbers” or “order from disorder” principle. But, although a normal-sized balloon filled with trillions of air molecules will always obey the gas laws, a microscopic balloon, one so tiny it is filled with only a handful of air molecules, will not. This is because, even at constant temperature, this handful of
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