Where results make sense

About us   |   Why use us?   |   Reviews   |   PR   |   Contact us

Topic: Microstate (statistical mechanics)

    Note: these results are not from the primary (high quality) database.

Entropy, Disorder and Life Statistical mechanics explains thermodynamics, which is a science based on observed phenomena of macroscopic entities, such as a cylinder full of gas, in terms of more basic physics of microscopic entities, such as the collection of molecules that comprises the gas. This is a postulate of statistical mechanics for an isolated system at equilibrium. The collection of microstates is called a statistical ensemble; it is the universe of possible states from which the system draws its actual state from moment to moment. www.talkorigins.org /faqs/thermo/entropy.html

Thermodynamics Thermodynamics Thermodynamics is the statistical mechanics from which many thermodynamic relationships can be derived. Timeline of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and random processes statistical mechanics, and random processes Jose... Microstate (thermodynamics) In thermodynamics, a microstate describes a specific detailed microscopic configuration of a... www.brainyencyclopedia.com /topics/thermodynamics.html

Microstate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the specific configuration of particles of a material in statistical mechanics, see microstate (statistical mechanics). Microstates have a strong influence in the United Nations General Assembly due to the one state, one vote power structure. The distinction between microstates and micronations is a grey area. en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Microstate   (246 words)

CONK! Encyclopedia: Entropy In classical statistical mechanics, the number of microstates is actually uncountably infinite, since the properties of classical systems are continuous. This postulate, which is known as Boltzmann's principle, may be regarded as the foundation of statistical mechanics, which describes thermodynamic systems using the statistical behaviour of its constituents. For example, a microstate of a classical ideal gas is specified by the positions and momenta of all the atoms, which range continuously over the real numbers. www.conk.com /search/encyclopedia.cgi?q=Entropy   (246 words)

What is Entropy? In classical thermodynamics, we deal with single extensive systems, whereas in statistical mechanics we recognize the role of the tiny constituents of the system. But the mathematical foundations of statistical mechanics are applicable to any statistical system, regardless of its status as a thermodynamic system. However, the restriction that all of the microstate probabilities must be calculated for the same macrostate, assures that, as in the earlier case, the system must be in a state of thermal equlibrium. www.tim-thompson.com /entropy1.html   (246 words)

sciforums.com - The 2nd law of thermodynamics is not about order or disorder Also, if you want to apply thermodynamics like saying G = H - TS, then you need to have many particles (thermodynamics is only valid for macroscopic systems -- when you study statistical mechanics you will see that thermodynamic relations are retrieved only when you take the limit N -> oo). In order to fully understand the reason for that, you should be a little more patient and take a class in statistical mechanics, which is the "foundation" of thermodynamics through the laws of Newton and/or quantum mechanics. I thought that the possible microstates that could result in a given macrostate all had to be indistinguishable when observing the macrostate — as in fundamentally indistinguishable, not just indistinguishable to whatever method of observation we happen to be using. www.sciforums.com /showthread.php?t=37221   (246 words)

David Z. Albert - Time and Chance - Reviewed by Nick Huggett, University of Illinois at Chicago - Philosophical Reviews - University of Notre Dame Briefly, Albert’s solution is to add to statistical mechanics – in addition to the postulates of Newtonian dynamics and indifference – an explicit postulate specifying the particular low entropy macrostate in which the universe was created (so statistical mechanics will remain incomplete until cosmology tells us what state that is). For example, the ensemble of microstates corresponding to ice cubes in hot coffee will evolve to an ensemble whose average thermodynamic state is one of cooler, watery coffee. First, our ignorance of the particular microstate is supposed, by itself, to justify the assumption of probabilistic indifference: the standard view invokes the classical interpretation of probability. ndpr.nd.edu /review.cfm?id=1261   (3117 words)

94-207 In particular, by contrast with the traditional statistical mechanics of finite systems, it accommodates the {\it phase structure} of matter, as manifested not only by the singularities in thermodynamic potentials, but also by the coexistence of equilibrium states with different microstructures. Hence, the standard concept of entropy as a structural property of an operationally determinable microstate [5, Ch.5] is inapplicable to it; and therefore the proposed extension [6,7] of this concept to non-observable objects has a subjective component. \vskip 0.2cm (1) In the case of a normal physical system, a microstate corresponds to a density matrix, ${\rho},$ whose explicit form may be operationally determined, and the entropy is a function, $-kTr({\rho}{\log}{\rho}),$ of this state, which provides a measure of its disorder [2, P.57]. www.ma.utexas.edu /mp_arc/papers/94-207   (3117 words)

Change:Epist-cause:Second law of thermodynamics and Mechanical principles The received explanation of thermo­dynamics, statistical mechanics, is often cited as a successful reduction of a theory to physics, but it is not completely successful in reducing these laws to the basic laws of physics. This makes sense statistically, if the possible microstates of a gas are all equally probable. Although the microstate of a gas depends on the positions and momentums of all its molecules, many different microstates are indistinguishable from a macroscopic standpoint, and Boltzmann’s idea was to measure the probabilities of different kinds of macrostates by the number of different microstates that could realize them. www.twow.net /ObjText/OtkCcCB.htm   (3117 words)

Microstate -a statistical toy MICROSTATE can be used in a general way to explore concepts of order and disorder in high school or general chemistry courses, or at more advanced levels to illustrate concepts of statistical mechanics. MICROSTATE is an interactive program which permits its user to explore the random exchanges of energy among a small group of molecules in a crystal. Microstate is written by Richard York and published by the Journal of Chemical Education:Software userpages.wittenberg.edu /ryork/micro.htm   (106 words)

Encyclopedia article on Statistical mechanics [EncycloZine] The probabilities of the various microstates must add to one, and the normalization factor is the partition function: where $E\_i$ is\; the\; energy\; of\; the\; ith$$microstate of the system. The entropy of a macroscopic state is proportional to the logarithm of the number of microscopic states corresponding to it. encyclozine.com /Statistical_mechanics   (1349 words)

Quantum statistical mechanics In classical statistical mechanics the observable takes a precise value for each microstate, since a microstate essentially corresponds to a fixed spatial and momentum configuration of the system. The first average is the quantum mechanical expectation (with respect to a microstate) of the operator In the quantum mechanical case it will, in the most general case, no longer be the case that the observable takes a definite value for each microstate, since now the microstate www.ph.ed.ac.uk /~arjun/arjun_thesis/node81.html   (887 words)

Encyclopedia article on Statistical mechanics [EncycloZine] Statistical mechanics is the application of statistics, which includes mathematical tools for dealing with large populations, to the field of mechanics, which is concerned with the motion of particles or objects when subjected to a force. It provides a framework for relating the microscopic properties of individual atoms and molecules to the macroscopic or bulk properties of materials that can be observed in every day life, therefore explaining thermodynamics as a natural result of statistics and mechanics (classical and quantum). The probabilities of the various microstates must add to one, and the normalization factor is the partition function: encyclozine.com /Statistical_mechanics   (887 words)

Boltzmann's Work in Statistical Physics Indeed, in his first paper in statistical physics of 1866, he claimed to obtain a completely general theorem from mechanics that would prove the second law. That probability distribution was now determined by the size of the volume in phase space corresponding to all the microstates giving rise to the same macrostate, (essentially given by calculating all permutations of the particles in a given macrostate). The relation between macro- and microstate is obviously non-unique since many different microstates, e.g., obtained by permuting the molecules, lead to the same macrostate. plato.stanford.edu /entries/statphys-Boltzmann   (887 words)

DISF - Interdisciplinary Encyclopaedia of Religion and Science Mind-Body Relationship This immediately implies that energetic and informational fluxes cannot be superimposed to each other in such systems, unlike what happens in the stochastic systems studied by statistical mechanics and linear thermodynamics. In a classic thermodynamic system, the two energetic and informational fluxes proceed instead in the same direction from the macrostate to the microstate, meaning that as soon as the system is described in terms of its microstate, its behaviour becomes perfectly predictable (cf. The unpredictability of the macrostate is therefore generated from the microstate of the trajectories of particles that compose the system. www.disf.org /en/Voci/14.asp   (887 words)

Try your search on: Qwika (all wikis)

About us   |   Why use us?   |   Reviews   |   Press   |   Contact us   Copyright © 2005-2007 www.factbites.com Usage implies agreement with terms.