Physics 4230, Fall 2010, Midterm exam 1

You have 50 minutes to finish the exam. Explain your reasoning clearly and concisely for full credit.

Figure 1: Quasi-static cyclic process of an ideal gas for Problem 1. 1. An ideal gas undergoes the quasi-static cyclic thermodynamic process shown in the P-V plane in Figure 1. The process begins and ends at point 1, and proceeds in the direction shown by the arrows. The dashed line is the T = T0 isotherm, so step A of this process corresponds to isothermal expansion. (a) [5 pts] Is the net change in energy !U for this process positive, negative, or zero? Why? (b) [5 pts] Is the total work !W done on the gas during this process positive, negative, or zero? Why? (c) [5 pts] Is the total heat !Q added to the gas during this process positive, negative, or zero? Why? (d) [15 pts] Assume the gas is diatomic. Calculate !U, !W, and !Q for step A. Repeat the calculation for steps B and C. Are the results consistent with your answers to parts (a)-(c)? 2. 12 cars share 12 parking spots in the parking lot east of Duane Physics: 5 indistinguishable Subaru Outbacks, 4 indistinguishable Toyota Priuses, and 3 indistinguishable Audi A4s. (a) [10 pts] How many distinct parking arrangements are there? Give a number, not just a formula. Hint: first calculate the number of ways of distributing 5 Subarus among 12 parking spots, then calculate the number of ways of distributing 4 Toyotas among the remaining 7 parking spots. (b) [5 pts] How many distinct parking arrangements would there be if the Audis had vanity plates that made them distinguishable?

3. A 10 g block of copper at 350 K is placed in thermal contact with a 20 g block of copper at 290 K. (a) [10 pts] What is the change in the total entropy of the two blocks of copper due to a transfer of 0.1 J of energy from the hotter block to the colder block, immediately after thermal contact is established? Assume that the temperatures of the two blocks dont change during this transfer. (b) [5 pts] By what factor does the number of accessible states (multiplicity) of the system change during this transfer? (This should be written as the exponential of a large number.) Is this a reversible process? 4. Consider a two-state paramagnet consisting of N spins in a magnetic field, which has energy U = BM, where is the spin magnetic moment, B is the magnetic field, M = N! N" is the magnetization, and N! and N" are the numbers of up and down spins, respectively (N = N! + N"). (a) [3 pts] How many possible macrostates are there? (b) [3 pts] What is the total number of possible microstates? (c) [4 pts] What is the multiplicity "(N,M) (number of microstates for a given M)? (d) [20 pts] Derive a formula for the entropy S(N,M) for large N and for M << N (high-temperature limit). Make use of Stirlings approximation and the expansion ln(1+x) = x x2/2, valid for |x| << 1. (e) [10 pts] Express the entropy in terms of U, and use the statistical definition of temperature to derive a formula for U as a function of T.