Section A Flashcards Preview

CH3717 Statistical Mechanics > Section A > Flashcards

Flashcards in Section A Deck (11)
Loading flashcards...
1
Q

Why is statistical thermodynamics useful?

A

Helps us to predict values of the change in gibbs free energy and equlibrium constants for all reactions

2
Q

Distinct particles

A

You can tell which particle is which, i.e. they can be labelled.

3
Q

Microstate

A
  • specifies each individual particle in the system and where they are in the system (energy level) at any instant of time
  • not direcltly observed
4
Q

configuration

A
  • specifies how many particles are in which energy level at any instant of time
  • not directly observed
5
Q

Macrostate

A
  • what we observe in experiments (E, S, H, V and T)
  • many microstates contribute to the macrostate and many microstates are visited over the course of an experiment, or simulation
6
Q

individual particles

A

have states (energy levels) with energies, E0, E1…

7
Q

Instantaneous configuration

A

At any instant there will be x number of particles with corresponding energy, e.g. x1 has E1

8
Q

Equal a priori Probability of configuartions

A
  • Configurations do noat affect macroscopic values
  • ## each configuration will will be visited in proportion to its statistical weight (equal a priori)
9
Q

The dominating configuration

A
  • the observed conformation will be the most probable one
  • properties of the system will thus be characteristic of the most probable/ dominating configuration
  • this configuration can be found by looking for values of ni that lead to maximum weight
10
Q

Conservation of particles and energy

A
  • we assume the total E is constant

- must also assume that total number of particles is fixed

11
Q

The boltzman distribution

A

The populations in the configurations of greatest weight deoend on the energy of the state