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Falacer comments on Entropy and Temperature - Less Wrong Discussion

26 Post author: spxtr 17 December 2014 08:04AM

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Comment author: Falacer 17 December 2014 08:00:42PM *  1 point [-]

I gave this a shot as well as since your value for E(T) → ∞ as T → ∞, while I would think the system should cap out at εN.

I get a different value for S(E), reasoning:

If E/ε is 1, there are N microstates, since 1 of N positions is at energy ε. If E/ε is 2, there are N(N-1) microstates. etc. etc, giving for E/ε = x that there are N!/(N-x)!

so S = ln [N!/(N-x)!] = ln(N!) - ln((N-x)!) = NlnN - (N-x)ln(N-x)

S(E) = N ln N - (N - E/ε) ln (N - E/ε)

Can you explain how you got your equation for the entropy?

Going on I get E(T) = ε(N - e^(ε/T - 1) )

This also looks wrong, as although E → ∞ as T → ∞, it also doesn't cap at exactly εN, and E → -∞ for T→ 0...

I'm expecting the answer to look something like: E(T) = εN(1 - e^(-ε/T))/2 which ranges from 0 to εN/2, which seems sensible.

EDIT: Nevermind, the answer was posted while I was writing this. I'd still like to know how you got your S(E) though.

Comment author: spxtr 17 December 2014 08:36:00PM 1 point [-]

S(E) is the log of the number of states in phase space that are consistent with energy E. Having energy E means that E/ε particles are excited, so we get (N choose E/ε) states. Now take the log :)