Homework 8 - PH2103 Thermal Physics

Due date: 25 October 2016

Dear students,

Your homework will be graded by the TAs.

Remember that, when solving an EXercise, you must:
EXplain what you do
EXamine your final answer, before plugging numbers (if needed)
o Are the units ok?
o Consider the result critically. Does the result make sense in particular
limits?
EXclude: avoid writing random things.

How to submit:
Submit the homework through NTU Learn uploading a file
Feel free to take photo of your solutions it is ok as long as we can read it.
However, please do not upload image file. Rather, convert the photo to
pdf, or include the in a work document, and upload it.
Do not west your time typesetting your homework
Grading:
The TAs will grade your HW on NTULearn. There is space for them to
make comments on your exercises.

Massimo

Problem 1 [10 points]

For a magnetic system held at constant temperature T and magnetic field H, the
quantity that is minimized is the magnetic analogue of the Gibbs free energy,
which obeys the thermodynamic identity
= 0 .
1. Derive an analogue of the Clausis-Clapeyron relation for the slope of a
phase boundary in the H-T plane. Write your equation in terms of the
difference in entropy of the two phases.
2. Discuss the application of your equation to the following ferromagnet phase
diagram

Problem 2 [10 points]

In the Van der Waals model, the critical point is the unique point where both the
first and the second derivative of with respect to , at fixed , are zero.
1. Use this fact to show that
= 3; =

1
8
;
and

27 2
27

2. Rewrite the van deer Walls equation in terms of the reduced variables

= ; ; = and notice that the constants , disappear. What

does it imply as concern the comparison of the phase diagram of different
substances?
3. For 2 reasonable values for and are: 41049 3 , =
61029 3 . For 2 , is roughly the same while is four time as large.
Estimate , and for 2 and 2 .

Problem 3 [10 points]

1. Prove that the entropy of mixing of an ideal mixture has an infinite slope,
when plotted versus x, at x = 0, and x = 1.
2. Consider an ideal mixture of just 100 molecules, varying in composition
from pure A to pure B. Use a computer to calculate the mixing entropy as a
function of , and plot this function (in units of ). Suppose you start with
all A and then convert one molecule to type B; by how much does the
entropy increase? By howm much does it increase when you convert a
second molecule, and then a third, from A to B? Discuss.
You can use the program you prefer. Using excel, you can have a column
counting from 1 to 100, and another estimating the corresponding
multiplicity. For instance, the formula =fact($A1) returns the factorial of
the content of cell A1.