{"id":405600,"date":"2017-05-08T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/?guid=cf2b18912a4a03d68e89450248a19bf5"},"modified":"2017-05-08T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T23:00:00","slug":"microscopic-and-probabilistic-approach-to-thermal-steady-state-based-on-a-dice-and-coin-toy-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/?p=405600","title":{"rendered":"Microscopic and probabilistic approach to thermal steady state based on a dice and coin toy model"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this article we present an educational approach to thermal equilibrium which was tested on a<br \/>\ngroup of 13 undergraduate students at the University of Trento. The approach is based on a<br \/>\nstochastic toy model, in which bodies in thermal contact are represented by rows of squares on a<br \/>\ncardboard table, which exchange coins placed on the squares based on the roll of two dice. The<br \/>\ndiscussion of several physical principles, such as the exponential approach to equilibrium, the<br \/>\ndetermination of the equilibrium temperature, and the interpretation of the equilibrium state as the<br \/>\nmost probable macrostate, proceeds through a continual comparison between the outcomes obtained with<br \/>\nthe toy model and the results of a real experiment on the thermal contact of two masses of water at<br \/>\ndifferent temperatures. At the end of the sequence, a re-analysis of the experimental results in<br \/>\nview of both the Boltzmann and Clausius definitions of entropy reveals some limits of the toy model,<br \/>\nbut also allows fo&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article we present an educational approach to thermal equilibrium which was tested on a<br \/>\ngroup of 13 undergraduate students at the University of Trento. The approach is based on a<br \/>\nstochastic toy model, in which bodies in thermal contact are re&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-405600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-rss-fuusikaharidus","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=405600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=405600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=405600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fyysika.ee\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=405600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}