Thank you very much.
Here is the original exercise. Maybe then you can better understand, what's my problem:
Consider a gas in which the velocities of the particles are isotropically distributed and follow the
Maxwell distribution
f(vi) = 4(pi) *(m/(2 pi k T))^3/2 (v_i)^2 * exp (-...
Thank you Buzz.
I think I don't need the cosine term because v_1 and v_2 are vectors and v_r = v_1-v_2 is also a vector. But I think I can't just set in v_r in the Maxwell distribution for velocities?
And I don't know which mass I should set in. Maybe something like: m*|(v_1-v_2)| to get...
I want to calculate the distribution function for the relative velocity v_r = v_1 - v_2 of two particles. Each particle velocity follows the Maxwell distribution for velocities. They have the same mass and temperature.
Can I just multiplicate the Maxwell distributions of the two particles (and...