Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Derivation of the partition function

Derivation of the partition function

article is barely coherent and full of misinformation. some examples:

it gives at least two fundamentally erroneous statements re ergodicity. it confused ergodicity with the a priori equal probability assumption in the first section. and the statement "... (otherwise, we would have ergodicity with respect to particle number). ..." is simply nonsensical.
the derivation is awkward and unilluminating.
the last expression in the first section is precisely the canonical partition partition. yet, immediately below, the article claims " The previous derivation is too restricted..." then apparently proceeds to "derive" canonical ensemble.
the last section proposes to derive the grand canonical ensemble, so why not give the grand partition function explicitly?

In summary, the article is possibly correct information that is at least awkwardly arranged or misarranged (one can probably find pieces of it here and there in some texts), with incorrect statements and no clear understanding demonstrated throughout. Mct mht 21:21, 21 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

my response to a prev removal of prod tag where an apparently generic justification is given:

"someone has removed the deletion tag and gave the following edit summary: (rm prod tag. mistakes in content aren't a reason to delete. if the material is irrelevant, double check that it's all covered elsewhere then make it a redirect.) if this kind of incoherence doesn't warrant deletion, then what does. one shouldn't weigh in unless 1. one has the background and is wiliing to rewrite and salvage this article, or 2. has knowledgable rebuttal to the points raised above. furthermore, as stated in the tag added, same material is covered in other relevant pages in much more legible fashion. Mct mht 21:09, 21 May 2006 (UTC)"

Mct mht 21:26, 21 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

keep, and if possible speedy keep. If you don't think the quality is good, edit the article. Change the mistakes to make it correct. If there's another article that already covers this material, consider merging to that article, or redirecting. You have given no reason to delete this per the deletion policy. There is no way this article is so bad that deleting it would be better than editing it. Mango juice^talk 23:34, 21 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

the above seems to be another generic response. again, the article gives bad information, in a technical sense. as long as that's properly noted, doesn't really matter whether it is deleted or not. it's also redudant to have a separate page, esp. a questionable one, on that subject. it is somewhat funny that people enter the discussion for what seems to be purely bureaucratic reasons and give no indication whatsoever that they understand the reasons given (e.g. "There is no way this article is so bad that deleting it would be better than editing it...", then no specific reason.) if that happens to be the policy, fine, as long as the reader is notified the information is unreliable. as noted above, any rebuttal from someone familiar with the subject in question is surely welcome. Mct mht 00:17, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

it would be kinda funny if the article is retained and bad information is left out there because people ignorant in the subject matter decide to have their bureaucratic say. seems pretty obvious the only sensible objections are from someone who's competent to judge, and who either disagrees on the specific points raised or on the worthiness of the article. Mct mht 00:34, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. It's possible that the article is so bad that it should be deleted. If it is wrong, then in AfD language, it would be unverifiable, original research and unencyclopaedic. I also see that it was been around for three years without major improvements. On the other hand, correct information merely being awkwardly arranged is not sufficient reason for deletion. More later. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 07:30, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. If there is incorrect information, simply delete that material and move it to the talk page. If the material is covered elsewhere, remove those bits with {main} tags as appropriate. If we end up with an article that has nothing left to say, we'll delete it then. It's harmful to delete an article that someone's put a lot of time and effort into on such shakey grounds. Very, very few articles are so "bad" that they cannot simply be stubbed. Stevage 07:32, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

shaky in what sense? you even read the article? by "possibly correct" i meant surely pieces of it here and there can be found in various references. as whole, article is incorrect and incoherent. also, i do realize mere awkwardness is far from being sufficient to warrant deletion. Mct mht 07:46, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

something should be clarified: is the ability to read the article and the reasons given for deletion at least somewhat intelligently required to enter the discussion (perhaps as an unwritten understanding somewhere)? this seems to be absent in the two votes given so far. if that's not the policy, then my mistake. i'd assumed whatever objections, if any, the proposal is to encounter would be knowledgable and informative. this hasn't been the case so far. Mct mht 08:12, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]