统计力学
While the second law, and thermodynamics in general, is accurate in its predictions of intimate interactions of complex physical systems behave, scientists are not content with simply knowing how a system behaves, but want to know also WHY it behaves the way it does. The question of why entropy increases until equilibrium is reached was answered very successfully in 1877 by a famous scientist named Ludwig Boltzmann. The theory developed by Boltzmann and others, is known as statistical mechanics. Statistical mechanics is a physical theory which explains thermodynamics in terms of the statistical behavior of the atoms and molecules which make up the system. The theory not only explains thermodynamics, but also a host of other phenomena which are outside the scope of thermodynamics.