ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Timeline of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and random processes

Okay kiddo, let me break this down for you.

Thermodynamics is all about understanding heat and energy. It helps us understand how different things like gas, liquid, and solid behave when they are heated.

Scientists started studying thermodynamics way back in the 1800s. They wanted to know how we could use steam to power engines and machines. This led to some very important discoveries, like the laws of thermodynamics. These laws helped us understand how energy moves around and how it can't be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another.

But as time went on, scientists wanted to understand even more about what's happening at the microscopic level. They wanted to know how all the tiny particles in a gas or liquid are behaving. This is where statistical mechanics comes in.

Statistical mechanics is all about understanding how the tiny particles in a system are moving around and interacting. Scientists started studying this in the late 1800s as well. They discovered that even though the movements of the tiny particles are random and unpredictable, you can still make some pretty good predictions about the overall behavior of the system they are in.

Now, let's talk about random processes. These are just events or things that happen without any obvious pattern or predictability. For example, rolling a dice or flipping a coin. Random processes are very important in physics and other sciences because they help us understand how chance and uncertainty affect different systems.

So, to sum it up, scientists started studying thermodynamics in the 1800s to understand energy and heat. As they delved deeper, they started studying statistical mechanics to understand the movements of tiny particles in a system. And finally, they also looked at random processes to understand the role of chance in different systems.