Einstein Model of

Solids
July 26, 2010
Chapter 12, Section 1-2

Statistics

Why

Why doesnt

Does heat flow from hot cold

Does a ball lose energy as it bounces
An ice cube heat up a room temperature drink
A ball go higher with each bounce

These are physically possible

Reversibility

Some things look silly when played

backwards

A puddle freezing into an ice cube

A person flying out of the pool onto a diving board

Other things dont

Elastic collisions

Einstein Model of Solids

Each atom in a solid is

attached to its
neighbors by springs

Seems valid, atoms do

vibrate

There is 1 pair of
springs per dimension
A 3-D oscillator

Fairly complicated to
solve for motion in 3-D

Energy and 3-D Oscillator

Recall

p 2 p x2 p y2 p z2
s 2 s x2 s y2 s z2

So 1 3-D oscillator is actually 3 1-D oscillators

p2 1 2
Evib K vib U spring
ks s
2m 2
2
p x2 1 2 p y 1 2 p z2 1 2
E
k s s x
k s s y
ks

2m 2 s z
2
m
2
2
m
2

Much simpler

Energy is quantized

1 quanta = 0

ks
ma

Effective Spring Constant

Recall from earlier:

Youngs Modulus allows the calculation of

the interatomic spring constant

k s,i
d

How does this constant compare to

the constant from the Einstein Model?

2 springs per direction *2

Each spring is length *2

k s ,e 4 * k s ,i

Equanta

4 k s ,i
ma

Clicker Question #1

How many oscillators are in a 3-D system

with 100 atoms?

A)
B)
C)
D)

100
150
200
300

Distributing 4 Quanta

Look at 1 atom (3 oscillators)

How can energy be split among these oscillators?

Similar to splitting 4 pieces of candy among 3 children

There are 3 ways to give 1 child all the candy

Child 1 Child 2

Child 3

Set 1

Set 2
Set 3

0
0

4
0

0
4

More 4 quanta

You dont need to give everything to 1 child

Give 3-1-0:

Or 2-2-0, 2-1-1:

There are 15 different ways to split up 4 things

among 3 people

Microstates and Macrostates

Microstate

A particular arrangement on q-quanta among

n-oscillators
Ex: Child 1 gets 4, all others get none

Macrostate

The collection of microstates that all have

q-quanta
All microstates with the same total energy

Fundamental Assumption

All microstates are equally likely

Given enough time and random trials each of the

possible arrangements of quanta would occur
1/15th of the time

4 Quanta and 2 Atoms

6 oscillators (3 per
atom)

Split the quanta between

each atom
Find the number of ways
to distribute them

There are 126 different

microstates

A pain to find them all

A formula is needed

Clicker Question #2

Which value of q1 is most likely

A)
B)
C)
D)

0
1
2
3

A Formula is Needed

With numbered balls

the order is important

12345 54321
The number of
sequences is 5!

In general for m
numbered balls

The number of
sequences is m!

Still Looking

Colored balls the order

is less important

The particular red ball

doesnt matter
Ex: r1r2 g1 g 2 r3 r2 r1 g1 g 2 r3 r2 r1 g 2 g1r3

There will be fewer

sequences

r g !

r! g!

r1

r2

g1

g2
r3

Almost There

Quanta and Oscillators

are like the red and
green balls

Quanta (q) dot

Oscillator (N) wall

The final formula is

q N 1!

q! N 1!

Large Numbers

q N 1!
q!N 1!

Factorials are very large

q 100, N 300
1.7 *1096

This is only 100 atoms!

Look at it once/sec. How long before you see all 100

quanta in 1 oscillator?

1*1096 s
2
3.17 *1088 years

t avg
t avg

tuniverse 1010 years