  The Weitere Studien starts with an appraisal of the role of probability theory in the context of gas theory. The number of particles in a gas is so enormous, and their movements are so swift that we can observe nothing but average values. The determination of averages is the province of probability calculus. Therefore, “the problems of the mechanical theory of heat are really problems in probability calculus” (WA I, 317). But, Boltzmann says, it would be a mistake to believe that the theory of heat would therefore contain uncertainties.