Fundamentals of Physics Extended (10th Edition)

Published by Wiley
ISBN 10: 1-11823-072-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-11823-072-5

Chapter 20 - Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics - Problems - Page 607: 46j

Answer

When N increases, the time spent in central configuration decreases.

Work Step by Step

When N increases, the time spent in central configuration decreases. This is because as N increases, the number of available microscopic states increases with the base of 2 and power of N, which is huge because there are more number of states to be occupied. This makes the probability less likely to remain in its central configuration, hence time spent decreases.
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