- #1
throneoo
- 126
- 2
Suppose the pdf is A*exp(-mv^2/2kT) , where A is the normalization constant.
To obtain A I would integrate the pdf over the all possible values of v. The question is, should the limits be (-infinity,infinity) or [0,infinity) ? It seems that only by choosing the former can I get the correct normalization, but if in essence this is derived from an energy distribution , why doesn't it run from 0 to infinity?
If I try to work out <v> or <v^2> of this distribution, should I use (-infinity,infinity) or [0,infinity) ? because I always use the latter when working with the standard 3D maxwell Boltzmann distribution (normalization, <v>, <v^2>)
To obtain A I would integrate the pdf over the all possible values of v. The question is, should the limits be (-infinity,infinity) or [0,infinity) ? It seems that only by choosing the former can I get the correct normalization, but if in essence this is derived from an energy distribution , why doesn't it run from 0 to infinity?
If I try to work out <v> or <v^2> of this distribution, should I use (-infinity,infinity) or [0,infinity) ? because I always use the latter when working with the standard 3D maxwell Boltzmann distribution (normalization, <v>, <v^2>)