Chapter 2: Q. 2.20 (page 66)
Problem . Suppose you were to shrink Figureuntil the entire horizontal scale fits on the page. How wide would the peak be?
Short Answer
Fraction of the total width of the graph is around the hydrogen atom
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Chapter 2: Q. 2.20 (page 66)
Problem . Suppose you were to shrink Figureuntil the entire horizontal scale fits on the page. How wide would the peak be?
Fraction of the total width of the graph is around the hydrogen atom
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For either a monatomic ideal gas or a high-temperature Einstein solid, the entropy is given by times some logarithm. The logarithm is never large, so if all you want is an order-of-magnitude estimate, you can neglect it and just say . That is, the entropy in fundamental units is of the order of the number of particles in the system. This conclusion turns out to be true for most systems (with some important exceptions at low temperatures where the particles are behaving in an orderly way). So just for fun, make a very rough estimate of the entropy of each of the following: this book (a kilogram of carbon compounds); a moose of water ; the sun of ionized hydrogen .
Using the same method as in the text, calculate the entropy of mixing for a system of two monatomic ideal gases, and , whose relative proportion is arbitrary. Let be the total number of molecules and let be the fraction of these that are of species . You should find
Check that this expression reduces to the one given in the text when .
Consider a two-state paramagnet with elementary dipoles, with the total energy fixed at zero so that exactly half the dipoles point up and half point down.
(a) How many microstates are "accessible" to this system?
(b) Suppose that the microstate of this system changes a billion times per second. How many microstates will it explore in ten billion years (the age of the universe)?
(c) Is it correct to say that, if you wait long enough, a system will eventually be found in every "accessible" microstate? Explain your answer, and discuss the meaning of the word "accessible."
For a single large two-state paramagnet, the multiplicity function is very sharply peaked about .
(a) Use Stirling's approximation to estimate the height of the peak in the multiplicity function.
(b) Use the methods of this section to derive a formula for the multiplicity function in the vicinity of the peak, in terms of . Check that your formula agrees with your answer to part (a) when .
(c) How wide is the peak in the multiplicity function?
(d) Suppose you flip coins. Would you be surprised to obtain heads and 499,000 tails? Would you be surprised to obtain 510,000 heads and 490,000 tails? Explain.
According to the Sackur-Tetrode equation, the entropy of a monatomic ideal gas can become negative when its temperature (and hence its energy) is sufficiently low. Of course this is absurd, so the Sackur-Tetrode equation must be invalid at very low temperatures. Suppose you start with a sample of helium at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, then lower the temperature holding the density fixed. Pretend that the helium remains a gas and does not liquefy. Below what temperature would the Sackur-Tetrode equation predict that is negative? (The behavior of gases at very low temperatures is the main subject of Chapter .)
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