Suppose that you look once every second at a system with 300oscillators and100 energy quanta, to see whether your favorite oscillator happens to have all the energy (all100 quanta) at the instant you look. You expect that just once out ofrole="math" localid="1655710247969" 1.7×1096 times you will find all of the energy concentrated on your favorite oscillator. On the average, about how many years will you have to wait? Compare this to the age of the Universe, which is thought to be aboutrole="math" localid="1655710262469" 1×1010 years.role="math" localid="1655710345899" 1Yπ×107S

Short Answer

Expert verified

I have to wait5.4×1088and it is5×1078times the age of the universe.

Step by step solution

01

Identification of the given data

The given data can be listed below as-

  • The oscillator of the system is N = 300.
  • The energy quanta of the system is q =100 .
  • The energy concentrated in the oscillator is 1 out of .1.7×1096
02

Significance of the entropy

The entropy is referred to as the measuring amount of a particular energy that is unavailable for doing a certain amount of work.

The concept of entropy gives the number of the years.

03

Determination of the number of years

The equation of the number of the ways to arrange the energy quanta of a system is,

Ω=q+N-1!q!N-1

Here, Ωis the number of ways, q is the energy quanta and N is the oscillators

Substituting the values in the above equation,

role="math" localid="1655710971347" Ω=100+300-1!100!300-1!=1.7×1096

With the help of the number of ways, the average time in years can be expressed as-

t=1.7×1096365days24h1day60min1h60sec1min=5.4×1088years

The comparison of the average time with the age of the universe is calculated as-

ttuniv=5.4×1088years1×1010years=5×1078

Thus, I have to wait 5.4×1088and it is 5×1078times the age of the universe.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

List explicitly all the ways to arrange 2 quanta among 4 one-dimensional oscillators.

For a certain metal the stiffness of the interatomic bond and the mass of one atom are such that the spacing of the quantum oscillator energy levels is 1.5×10-23J. A nanoparticle of this metal consisting of atoms has a total thermal energy of role="math" localid="1657867970311" 18×10-23J. (a) What is the entropy of this nanoparticle? (b) The temperature of the nanoparticle is 87 K. Next we add18×10-23 J to the nanoparticle. By how much does the entropy increase?

The entropy S of a certain object (not an Einstein solid) is the following function of the internal energy E:S=bE1/2, where b is a constant. (a) Determine the internal energy of this object as a function of the temperature.

(b) What is the specific heat of this object as a function of the temperature?

How many different ways are there to get 5 heads in 10 throws of a true coin? How many different ways are there to get no heads in 10 throws of a true coin?

The reasoning developed for counting microstates applies to many other situations involving probability. For example, if you flip a coin 5 times, how many different sequences of 3 heads and 2 tails are possible? Answer: 10 different sequences, such as HTHHT or TTHHH. In contrast, how many different sequences of 5 heads and 0 tails are possible? Obviously only one, HHHHH, and our equation gives 5!/[5!0!]=1, using the standard definition that 0! is defined to equal 1.

If the coin is equally likely on a single throw to come up heads or tails, any specific sequence like HTHHT or HHHHH is equally likely. However, there is only one way to get HHHHH, while there are 10 ways to get 3 heads and 2 tails, so this is 10times more probable than getting all heads. Use the expression5!/[N!5-N!]to calculate the number of ways to get 0 heads, 1 head, 2 heads, 3 heads, 4 heads, or 5 heads in a sequence of 5 coin tosses. Make a graph of the number of ways vs. the number of heads.

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