In: Physics
Calculate ln Omega (k) for N large and k = fN where f is a fraction. Assume k and N-k are also large and use Stirling's approximation.
Entropy & 2 nd Law of Thermodynamics
Exam Study. Extremely Urgent.
Configurational entropy refers to the entropy resulting from imperfect mixing of different atoms in the same site in a crystal.
When you roll a die, there are six possible outcomes, with the following probability
P(X=1) + P(X=2) + ... + P(X=6) = 1
The probability that any particular number will come up is
The uncertainty associated with that probability is 0 if one outcome has a probability of 1, and a maximum when the outcomes are equally likely.
Imagine a material with M atoms that can occupy N sites. If the mixing is ideal, the atoms have no interaction with each other, so more than one can occupy the same site. The total number of configurations, , in this system is
Copyright c 2009 by C.H. Mak
But, this is slightly incorrect (in what is known as Gibbs' paradox) because there is overcounting of identical configurations like these
With the overcounting removed we have
Boltzmann defined configurational entropy as