On the Use of Approximations in Statistical Physics
General Physics
2007-05-23 v2 Physics Education
Abstract
Two approximations are frequently used in statistical physics: the first one, which we shall name the mean values approximation, is generally (and improperly) named as "maximum term approximation". The second is the "Stirling approximation". In this paper we demonstrate that the error introduced by the first approximation is exactly compensated by the second approximation in the calculation of mean values of multinomial distributions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0309119,
title = {On the Use of Approximations in Statistical Physics},
author = {Conrado Hoffmann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0309119},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
4 pages, no figures, affiliation change