Physics

Physics · thermodynamics

Problem

b. What is the average potential energy of an atom near the boundary of the box? Assume that there is no interaction between atoms near the boundary and the box itself. Given constants: ## Real Expansion Consider a "real" monatomic gas consisting of

N

atoms of negligible volume and mass

m

in equilibrium inside a closed cubical container of volume

V

. In this "real" gas, the attractive forces between atoms is small but not negligible. Because these atoms have negligible volume, you can assume that the atoms do not collide with each other for the entirety of the problem. Context question: a. Consider an atom in the interior of this container of volume

V

. Suppose the potential energy of the interaction is given by

u(r)= \begin{cases}0 & r<d \\ -\epsilon\left(\frac{d}{r}\right)^{6} & r \geq d\end{cases}

where

d \ll V^{1 / 3}

is the minimum allowed distance between two atoms. Assume the gas is uniformly distributed within the container, what is the average potential energy of this atom? Write your answer in terms of

a^{\prime}=\frac{2 \pi d^{3} \epsilon}{3}, N

, and

V

. Context answer:

-2 a^{\prime} N / V

Related theory

thermodynamics

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