Microstates
1) Polymers, like rubber, are made of very long molecules, usually tangled up. Another very crude model of a rubber band is that each link is either crumbled up or stretched. If it is crumbled up, its length is negligible and it is in the lowest energy state, call it E = 0. If it is stretched, then its length is L and it is in its high energy state of E = Eo. Consider a rubber band made of N links. The total length, Ltot, of the rubber band is the net displacement from the beginning of the first link to the end of the last link.
(See attachment for the rest of the questions.)
© BrainMass Inc. brainmass.com May 24, 2023, 1:21 pm ad1c9bdddfhttps://brainmass.com/physics/atoms-molecules/microstates-polymer-links-18482
Solution Preview
I annotated your original document. See attachment.
1) Polymers, like rubber, are made of very long molecules, usually tangled up. Another very crude model of a rubber band is that each link is either crumbled up or stretched. If it is crumbled up, its length is negligible and it is in the lowest energy state, call it E = 0. If it is stretched, then its length is L and it is in its high energy state of E = Eo. Consider a rubber band made of N links. The total length, Ltot, of the rubber band is the net displacement from the beginning of the first link to the end of the last link.
a) How many microstates are there when the energy of the system is nEo. Here, n is an integer that is less than the total number of links, N. (5 points) One unit of E comes from each stretched link ...
Solution Summary
The microstates of polymer links are given. The total length of the rubber are given. The solution is provided in an attachment in approximately 300 words.