Figure 2

A macroscopic example of calculating the multiplicity of 10 science books. These 10 books consist of five biology books (Darwin 1859; Gould 1989; Von Linnaeus 1758; Schrodinger 1944; and Simpson 1951) and five physics books (Copernicus 1543; Einstein 1916; Hawking 1998; Hubble 1982; and Newton 1686). (A) Since there is only one way to arrange these 10 alphabetically, the multiplicity is one. (B) If the books are arranged by subject, the multiplicity increases because there are many ways to arrange the books when grouped by subject. (C) If the books are arranged by year, this changes the multiplicity because it applies a different constraint on the organization. (D) The maximum multiplicity is when there is no organization because any book can be in any position.