3. Entropy and Temperature

Question 1

What state is entropy associated with in S.M. ?

Answer 1

A macrostate

Question 2

What is entropy a measure of?

Answer 2

Disorder in a system

Question 3

Describe what happens as the number of microstates increases

Answer 3

• More microstates are accessible so the system is less well defined
• Greater the entropy

Question 4

How can you obtain the total number of microstates for two combined systems?

Answer 4

You multiply their magnitudes together

Question 5

See page 2 of document for Boltzmann’s entropy formula

Answer 5

Do it

Question 6

See page 2 of document for a worked example comparing S.M. and thermo

Answer 6

Do it

Question 7

Describe the second law of thermodynamics in terms of entropy

Answer 7

Isolated systems in equilibrium is in a state of maximum entropy

Question 8

Describe the second law of thermodynamics in terms of S.M.

Answer 8

Isolated systems will adopt the macrostate with the highest number of microstates

Question 9

See page 3 of document for thermal equilibrium for thermo and S.M.

Answer 9

Do it

Question 10

What units does k_B*T have?

Answer 10

Units of energy

Question 11

See pages 3 and 4 of document for the Boltzmann distribution and the partition function equations

Answer 11

do it

Question 12

See page 4 of document for the two state system example using the partition function

Answer 12

DO IT

Question 13

How can we get around the difficulty of measuring entropy in thermodynamics?

Answer 13

By measuring changes in S using the heat capacity

SEE PAGE 4 OF DOCUMENT