Boltzmann Distributions

Authors: R.J. Lancashire, Department of Chemistry, UWI, Mona, Kgn7 JAMAICA, (robert.lancashire@uwimona.edu.jm)
W.R. Pinnock, Department of Chemistry, UWI, Mona, Kgn7 JAMAICA, (willard.pinnock@uwimona.edu.jm)

This program was written to run under MS-Windows and runs without problems under Windows NT or Windows 95. It simulates random elastic collisions of units in a container. It graphically presents a profile of the distribution of energy among these units during the process where a large number of collisions occur.

The following items are selectable:

the number of units (typical values are 100-10,000)
their initial energy (for example 30 - 200)
the number of collisions (should be > 2.5 times the number of units)

A target and projectile are selected at random and the energy lost by the projectile to the target is also selected at random. This process continues for the selected number of collisions, which can be up to 65,000.

The initial energy distribution is one in which all the units have the same energy. By varying the number of collisions it is possible by monitoring ln W to see how many are required before an "equilibrium" distribution results. This appears as a Boltzmann-like curve.

A JAVA applet is available as a replacement for the old Windows application.

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Created and maintained by Prof. Robert J. Lancashire,
The Department of Chemistry, University of the West Indies,
Mona Campus, Kingston 7, Jamaica.

Created April 1995. Links checked and/or last modified 21st February 2006.
URL http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm/software/wboltz.html