{"title":"Volumetric Flask with White and Blue Balls: Demonstration of Microcanonical Ensemble of Small Populations","authors":"Mihalj Poša","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00496","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Chemical Education","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00496","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
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.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Chemical Education is the official journal of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society, co-published with the American Chemical Society Publications Division. Launched in 1924, the Journal of Chemical Education is the world’s premier chemical education journal. The Journal publishes peer-reviewed articles and related information as a resource to those in the field of chemical education and to those institutions that serve them. JCE typically addresses chemical content, activities, laboratory experiments, instructional methods, and pedagogies. The Journal serves as a means of communication among people across the world who are interested in the teaching and learning of chemistry. This includes instructors of chemistry from middle school through graduate school, professional staff who support these teaching activities, as well as some scientists in commerce, industry, and government.