title: Maxwell's color statistics: from reduction of visible errors to reduction to invisible molecules.
abstract: This paper presents a cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary account of Maxwell's introduction of statistical models of molecules for the composition of gases. The account focuses on Maxwell's deployment of statistical models of data in his contemporaneous color researches as established in Cambridge mathematical physics, especially by Maxwell's seniors and mentors. The paper also argues that the cross-disciplinary, or cross-domain, transfer of resources from the natural and social sciences took place in both directions and relied on the complex intra-disciplinary, or intra-domain, dynamics of Maxwell's researches in natural sciences, in color theory, physical astronomy, electromagnetism and dynamical theory of gases, as well as involving a variety of types of communicating and mediating media, from material objects to concepts, techniques and institutions.
authors.affiliation: Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. drjordicat@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cat
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D005740:Gases; D049672:History, 19th Century; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007700:Kinetics; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010811:Natural Science Disciplines / Q000266:history; D010825:Physics / Q000266:history*; D012107:Research Design; D012942:Social Sciences / Q000266:history
chemical_list: D005740:Gases