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SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION

Honour School of Physics Part A: 3 and 4 Year Courses

Honour School of Physics and Philosophy Part A

A1: THERMAL PHYSICS

Wednesday, 17 June 2009, 9.30 am – 12.30 pm

TRINITY 2009

Answer all questions of Section A and three questions from Section B.

Start the answer to each question on a fresh page.

A list of physical constants and conversion factors accompanies this paper.

The numbers in the margin indicate the weight that the Examiners expect to
assign to each part of the question.

Do NOT turn over until told that you may do so.

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 Section A

1. The speed v of molecules in an ideal gas is given by the Maxwell distribution

3/2
m

2 /2k
BT
P (v) = 4πv 2 e−mv ,
2πkB T
where the symbols have their normal meanings. Estimate
(a) the most probable speed, average speed and rms speed for nitrogen molecules (N2 )
at 300 K.
(b) the temperture of a gas comprised of nitrogen molecues that have a mean trans-
lational kinetic energy of 6.07 × 10−21 J.
[You may take the molar mass of a nitrogen atom (N) to be 14 g mol−1 .] [6]

2. An Otto cycle consists of four stages: (a) an adiabatic compression from V1 to V2 ,

(b) an isochoric pressure increase; (c) an adiabatic expansion from V2 to V1 ; and (d) an
isochoric pressure decrease. Sketch the p–V diagram indicating where heat enters and
leaves the system. Assuming that the gas behaves like an ideal gas with a constant heat
capacity, show that the efficiency is
γ−1
V2

η =1− ,
V1
where γ is the ratio of the specific heat at constant pressure to the specific heat at
constant volume. [8]

3. A person (mass 57.8 kg) tries to penetrate a garden fork (mass 1 kg) into a melting
block of ice by standing on it with all his/her weight. Assume that no heat flows from
the fork to the ice. The fork has four prongs, and each prong has a square cross section
of area 1 mm2 . By how much must the temperature of the ice be lowered to resist
penetration?
[You may take the density of water and ice at 0 ◦ C to be 1000 kg m−3 and 916.7 kg m−3 ,
respectively. The latent heat of fusion of ice is 333 × 103 J kg−1 .] [6]

4. By considering entropy S to be a function of temperature T and volume V show

that
V T βp2
Cp − CV = ,
κT
where Cp and CV are the heat capacities at constantpressure and volume, respectively,
1 ∂V

βp is the isobaric expansivity defined by βp = , and κT is the isothermal
V ∂T p
1 ∂V
 
compressibility defined by κT = − .
V ∂p T [7]

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 5. Write down the fundamental postulate of statistical mechanics and use it to show
that, for an isolated ensemble of weakly-interacting distinguishable systems of the same
type, the most likely population distribution is the Boltzmann distribution.
[You may assume that, for an ensemble of N distinguishable systems of the same type,
the number of ways ofassigning systems to states with occupation numbers ni is given
N!
by W = .
n1 !n2 !n3 ! · · · [8]

6. In the classical limit, the partition function for N molecules of an ideal gas can
be conveniently written Z = (V z)N /N ! where z depends only on the temperature T ,
some internal properties of a molecule and fundamental constants. Find an expression
for the chemical potential in terms of kB T , N/V and z. [5]

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 Section B

The heat diffusion equation in cylindrical coordinates is:

" #
∂T κ ∂2T 1 ∂T 1 ∂2T ∂2T H
= + + + + .
∂t CV ∂r 2 r ∂r r 2 ∂φ2 ∂z 2 CV

1
7.
A
0.5 D
M/Nµ

−0.5

−1
−4 −2 0 2 4
B

A paramagnetic solid object is placed inside a solenoid in vacuo. The solid can
be modelled as an ensemble of weakly interacting spin-half systems, each with magnetic
dipole moment µ. The diagram shows the magnetic dipole moment M of the object as
a function of applied magnetic field B, with two isotherms plotted.
(a) State, with reasons, which isotherm (A or D) corresponds to the higher tempera-
ture.
(b) Write down an expression for M in terms of the populations of the two spin states
and other relevant quantities. Give an argument to show that M is constant if
the entropy is constant.
(c) Explain why the spins do not all relax or ‘flip’ to their lowest energy state.
(d) Define a Carnot cycle. Copy the diagram and indicate on your diagram an example
Carnot cycle. [9]
Write down the partition function for the system and use it to obtain the equation
of state relating M , B and T . Show that
kB T 1+m
 
B= ln ,
2µ 1−m
where m = M/(N µ), and find (∂B/∂m)T . Show that the magnetic work required to
magnetise the object isothermally from M = 0 has the form a(T ) ln(1 − m2 ) and obtain
the proportionality constant a(T ). [6]
Write down expressions for the work done in each of the four parts of a Carnot
cycle between limits m1 , m2 and T1 , T2 , where m1 < m2 and T1 < T2 . Hence, show that
the net work done per cycle is proportional to T2 − T1 .
[The magnetic work done during a small change is dW = −M dB.] [5]

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 8. Show that |AB| = |A||B| for arbitrary 2× 2 matrices A and B, where |M | signifies
the determinant of M .
A three-component real vector r = (x, y, z) is related to a complex 2 × 2 matrix
S by !
z x − iy
S= .
x + iy −z

Let S ′ = U SU † be similarly related to r′ = (x′ , y ′ , z ′ ), where U is a unitary matrix

of determinant 1. Find |S|, and show that x′2 + y ′2 + z ′2 = x2 + y 2 + z 2 . [6]
The matrix exponential exp(M ) is defined by
1 2 1
exp(M ) = I + M + M + M3 + . . . .
2! 3!
Show that exp(iθσx ) = cos(θ) I + i sin(θ) σx . By relating S to the Pauli spin matrices,
or otherwise, show that, when S is transformed to S ′ = U SU † by U = exp(iθσx ), the
associated vector r′ is related to r by a rotation through 2θ about the x axis. [11]
Show that any 2 × 2 unitary matrix with unit determinant can be written as
!
a −b∗
b a∗

for some pair of complex numbers a, b. [3]

[The Pauli spin matrices are
! ! !
0 1 0 −i 1 0 i
σx = , σy = , σz = .
1 0 i 0 0 −1

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 9. What is meant by a quasistatic, adiabatic process? Starting from the First Law
of Thermodynamics, show that, for an ideal gas at temperature T occupying volume V ,

T V γ−1 = constant,

where γ is the ratio of the specific heat at constant pressure to the specific heat at
constant volume. [7]
The hydrostatic equation expresses the change in pressure dp due to a layer of
atmosphere of thickness dz as
dp = −ρg dz,
where ρ is the density of air and g is the acceleration due to gravity. Using this ex-
pression, show that the change in temperature with height for a parcel of air that rises
adiabatically in the atmosphere can be expressed as

(γ − 1) mg
− ,
γ kB
where m is the molecular mass of dry air. [8]
Hence estimate the change in temperature with height for an ideal parcel of dry
air as it rises adiabatically in the Earth’s lower atmosphere. Repeat the calculation for a
gas parcel in a planetary atmosphere composed of a mixture of monatomic gases whose
effective molar mass is 28.96×10−3 kg for Earth-like conditions, i.e. where g = 9.8 m s−2 .
Comment on your result. [5]

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 10. The heat flux Jz in the z-direction is given by
∂T
Jz = −κ ,
∂z
where κ is the thermal conductivity. Explain the necessity for a negative sign on the
right-hand-side of this equation. Using simple kinetic theory, show that κ is

κ = 31 CV λhvi,

where CV is the heat capacity per unit volume, λ is the mean free path, and hvi is the
mean molecular velocity. [5]
Consider a cylinder of radius a with thermal conductivity κ1 with uniformly dis-
tributed heat sources providing heat per unit volume H (W m−3 ). This cylinder is
surrounded by a second cylinder of outer radius b with thermal conductivity κ2 . If the
cylinder is sufficiently long so that the temperature may be considered as a function of
radius only, show that the temperature in the cylinder at equilibrium can be described
by
Ha2

H 2 2
T + (a − r ) + ln(b/a), if 0 ≤ r ≤ a,

a

4κ1


2κ2
T (r) = 2
 T + Ha ln(b/r),

if a ≤ r ≤ b,

 a
2κ2
where Ta is the temperature of the cylinder at radius b. [9]
A stainless-steel wire is 0.1 mm in diameter and 1 m long. If the outside of the
wire is held fixed at 20◦ C, estimate the steady-state current passing through the wire
when the stainless steel at the centre of the wire begins to melt. A second wire similar to
the first is encased in glass 2 mm thick. If the outside of the glass is held fixed at 20◦ C,
estimate the current passing through the wire when the stainless steel at the centre of
the wire begins to melt.
[For stainless steel, the melting point is 1400◦ C, κ =19 W m−1 K−1 , and the resistivity
is 70 µΩ cm. For glass κ =1.3 W m−1 K−1 .] [6]

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