Chapter 9: Q50E (page 406)
You have six shelves, one above the other and all above the floor, and six volumes of an encyclopedia, A, B, C, D, E and F.
(a) list all the ways you can arrange the volumes with five on the floor and one on the sixth/top shelf. One way might be.
(b) List all the ways you can arrange them with four on the floor and two on the third shelf.
(c) Show that there are many more ways, relative to pans (a) and (b), to arrange the six volumes with two on the floor and two each on the first and second shelves. (There are several ways to answer
this, but even listing them all won't take forever it's fewer than.)
(d) Suddenly, a fantastic change! All six volumes are volume X-it's impossible to tell them apart. For each of the three distributions described in parts (a), (b), and (c), how many different (distinguishable) ways are there now?
(e) If the energy you expend to lift a volume from the floor is proportional to a shelf's height, how do the total energies of distributions (a), (b), and (c) compare?
(I) Use these ideas to argue that the relative probabilities of occupying the lowest energy states should be higher for hosons than for classically distinguishable particles.
(g) Combine these ideas with a famous principle to argue that the relative probabilities of occupying the lowest states should he lower for fermions than for classically distinguishable particles.
Short Answer
a) There are a total of six possible ways to have five books on the floor and one on the sixth shelf. The possible arrangements are as follows:
b) There are a total of 15 possible ways to have four books on the floor and two on the third shelf. The possible arrangements are as follows:
c) The total number of ways to arrange the six volumes such that two are on the floor, two are on the first shelf, and two are on the second shelf is 90
d) The number of ways to perform the arrangements described in parts (a), (b), and (c) is only one.
e) All arrangements described in parts (a). (b). and (c) share the same total energy of 6 units.
f) As we've seen, books that can be recognised from one another have a greater number of alternative configurations than books that appear to be similar. This is similar to classical particles, which have a considerably larger variety of ways to disperse their energies in lower energy states than bosons. As a result, bosons gravitate toward lower energy levels, especially the ground state.
g) Fermions have a smaller likelihood of being found in the lowest states than classical particles.