Volumetric Flask with White and Blue Balls: Demonstration of Microcanonical Ensemble of Small Populations

• Mihalj Poša ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 101, Nº 9, 2024, págs. 4057-4063
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The microstates of an isolated system indicate the different distributions of the energy of a system over the set of particles of the system. Microstates with the same (quantum states) occupation number form a configuration set. All microstates have the same probability of occurrence. Students determined the probability distribution of the configurations in a model experiment demonstrating the ergodic theory. The model experiment required a volumetric flask with white and blue plastic balls. The sequential order (repeated permutation) of the plastic balls in the neck of the flask corresponds to a microstate. The experiment was performed after the theoretical lecture.