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pinkfishegg
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Homework Statement
A collection of three non-interacting particles shares 3 units of energy. Each particle is restricted to having an integral number of units of energy.
a)How many macrostates are there?
b)How many microstates are there in each of the macrostates?
c)What is the probability of finding one of the particles with 2 units of energy? With 0 units of energy?[/B]
Homework Equations
Definitions:
macrostate: each possible energy distribution
microstate: the various arrangement of microstates according to a given macrostate
The Attempt at a Solution
The answers are in the back of the book but I'm not really clear on the concepts
a) There are 3 macrostates because there are 3 units of energy?
b) My first though was that you could have either:
3 microstates in each macrostate There are 3 ways to do that
2 microstates in one microstate, 1 in anouther. There are 6 ways to do this
2 microstates per macrostate
c) if what I am saying is right than there's a 1/6 chance that one particle has 2 units of energy, and a 1/3 chance they have zero units of energy