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Textbook Solutions for An Introduction to Thermal Physics

Chapter 6 Problem 17P

Question

The most common measure of the fluctuations of a set of numbers away from the average is the standard deviation, defined as follows.

(a) For each atom in the five-atom toy model of Figure, compute the deviation of the energy from the average energy, that is, \(E_{i}-\bar{E}\) for i = 1 to 5. Call these deviations \(\Delta E_{i}\).

(b) Compute the average of the squares of the five deviations, that is, \(\overline{\left(\Delta E_{i}\right)^{2}}\) Then compute the square root of this quantity, which is the root-mean-square (rms) deviation, or standard deviation. Call this number \(\sigma_{E}\). Does \(\sigma_{E}\) give a reasonable measure of how far the individual values tend to stray from the average?

(c) Prove in general that

\(\sigma_{E}^{2}=\overline{E^{2}}-(\bar{E})^{2}\),

that is, the standard deviation squared is the average of the squares minus the square of the average. This formula usually gives the easier way of computing a standard deviation.

(d) Check the preceding formula for the five-atom toy model of Figure 6.5.

Solution

Step 1 of 4

(a) Consider the following toy energy model, we have two particles with energy of \(E_{1}=0 \mathrm{eV}\), two particles with energy of \(E_{2}=4 \mathrm{eV}\) and one particle with energy of \(E_{3}=7 \mathrm{eV}\), their average energy is given by:

\(\bar{E}=\frac{2(0 \mathrm{eV})+2(4 \mathrm{eV})+1(7 \mathrm{eV})}{5}\)

Where 5 is the total number of particles, so:

\(\bar{E}=3 \mathrm{eV}\)

The deviation is given by \(E_{i}-\bar{E}\), using this formula the deviations are:

\(\overline{E_1-\overline{E}=-3\mathrm{eV}\quad\ \ E_2-\overline{E}=1\mathrm{eV}\quad\ \ E_3-\overline{E}=4\mathrm{eV}}\)

note that we have two particles with the first deviation and two particles with the second deviation.

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full solution

Title An Introduction to Thermal Physics  1 
Author Daniel V. Schroeder
ISBN 9780201380279

The most common measure of the fluctuations of a set of

Chapter 6 textbook questions

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