[phase space...]
> Didn't their usage become industrialized by Willard Gibbs [or did he get it from
> CS Pierce's dad?] or are they much older than that?
Yep, it is Gibbs. Lanczos attributes it to him in _The Variational Principles of Mechanics_. Also IIRC my alma mater's science library had a collection of Gibb's works from ~1900 where he used the term.
Matt
-- Matt Cramer <cramer at voicenet.com> http://www.voicenet.com/~cramer/ I am the resurrection and I am the life, I couldn't bring myself to hate you as I'd like.
-Ian Brown