Statistical Mechanics

Tutorial No.1

Q1. Consider a Maxwellian distribution of the velocity of the molecules of an ideal gas. Let Vmp
and Vrms denote the most probable velocity and the root mean square velocity, respectively.
calculate the ratio of most probable velocity and root mean square velocity.

Q2. A random walker takes a step of unit length in the positive direction with probability 2/3 and
a step of unit length in the negative direction with probability 1/3. Calculate the mean
displacement of the walker after n steps.

Q3. A box of volume V containing N molecules of an ideal gas, is divided by a wall with a hole into
two compartments. If the volume of the smaller compartment is V/3, what is the variance of
the number of particles in it?

Q4. Consider a random walk on an infinite two-dimensional triangular lattice, a part of which is
shown in the figure below.

If the probabilities of moving to any of the nearest neighbour sites are equal, what is the
probability that the walker returns to the starting position at the end of exactly three steps?

Q5. A particle hops on a one-dimensional lattice with lattice spacing a. The probability of the
particle to hop to the neighbouring site to its right is p, while the corresponding probability
to hop to the left is q=1-p. what is the root-mean squared deviation∆𝑥 = √< 𝑥 2 > −< 𝑥 >2
displacement after N steps.

Q6. Electrons of mass m in a thin, long wire at a temperature T follow a one-dimensional

Q7. Consider a game in which six true dice are rolled. Find the probability of obtaining

(i) Exactly one ace

Q8. In the game of Russian roulette (not recommended by anyone), one inserts a single cartridge
into the drum of revolver, leaving the other five chambers of the drum empty. One then
spins the drum, aims at one’s head and pulls the trigger.

(a) What is the probability of being still alive after playing the game N times?
(b) What is the probability of surviving (N-1) turns in this game and then being shot the Nth
time one pulls the trigger?
(c) What is the mean number of times a player gets the opportunity of pulling the trigger in
this macabre game?

Q9. Two drunks start out together at the origin, each having an equal probability of making a
step to the left or right along the x axis. Find the probability of they meet again after N steps.
 It is to be understood that men/women make their steps simultaneously. (it may be helpful
to consider their relative motion.)

Q10. Consider the random walk problem with p=q and let m = n1-n2 denote the net displacement
to the right. After a total of N steps, calculate the following mean values: 𝑚 ̅̅̅̅2 , 𝑚
̅, 𝑚 ̅̅̅̅3 and 𝑚
̅̅̅̅4 .

Q11. Assume that typographical errors committed by a typesetter occur completely at random.
Suppose that a book of 600 pages contains 600 such errors. Use the Poisson distribution to
calculate the probability (a) that a page contains no errors, (b) that a page contains at least 3
errors.

Q12. A penny is tossed 400 times. Find the probability of getting 215 heads. ( Suggestion: use the
gaussian approximation)

Q13. A set of telephone lines is to be installed so as to connect town A to town B. The town A has
2000 telephones. If each of the telephone users of A were to be guaranteed instant access to
make calls to B, 2000 telephone line would be needed. This would be rather extravagant.
Suppose that during the busiest hour of the day each subscriber in A requires, a telephone
connection to B for 2 min. and that these telephone calls are made at random. Find the
minimum number M of telephone line to B which must be installed so that at mostly only 1
percent of the callers of town A will fail to have immediate access to a telephone line to B.
(Suggestion: approximate the distribution by a gaussian distribution to facilitate the
arithmetic.)

Q14. A battery of total emf V is connected to a resistor R; as a result an amount of power P= V2/R
is dissipated in this resistor. The battery itself consists of N individual cells connected in series
so that V is just equal to the sum if emf’s of all these cells. The battery is old, however, so
that not all cells are in perfect condition. Thus there is only a probability p that the emf of
any individual cell has its normal value v; and a probability 1-p that the emf of any individual
cell is zero because the cell has become internally shorted. The individual cells are
statistically independent of each other. Under these conditions, calculate the mean power P
dissipated in the resistor, expressing the result in terms of N, v and p.

Q15. A drunk starts out from a lamppost in the middle of the street, taking steps of equal length
either to the right or to the left with equal probability. What is the probability that the man
will again be at the lamppost after taking N steps (a) if N Is even, (b) if N is odd?

Q16. Consider the random walk problem for a particle in one dimension. Assume that in each step
its displacement is always positive and equally likely to be anywhere in the range between
𝑙 − 𝑏 and 𝑙 + 𝑏 where 𝑏 < 𝑙. After N steps what is (a) the mean displacement x? (b) the
̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
dispersion (𝑥 − 𝑥̅ )2 .