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Next: Phase Space Up: Subject of Statistical Thermodynamics Previous: Statistical Description

Ensembles

I have a set of 1000 systems. I want to predict average values for this set. This is the right question for Stat Thermo!. The set is called ensemble .

Kinds of ensembles:

Microcanonical:
The systems are completely closed (a thermos)
Canonical:
The systems can exchange heat with the universe (a sealed beaker)
Grand Canonical:
The systems can exchange heat and particles with the universe (an open beaker)

\begin{figure*}
\InputIfFileExists{ensembles.pstex_t}{}{}\end{figure*}


© 1997 Boris Veytsman and Michael Kotelyanskii
Wed Sep 3 22:38:51 EDT 1997