The Boltzmann distribution of uniformly spaced energy levels

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around calculating the fraction of particles in the ground state of a system with uniformly spaced energy levels using the Boltzmann distribution at a temperature of 300K. The user derived an expression for the energy state based on the spacing of 3.2x10^-10 J and attempted to apply the Boltzmann distribution formula. However, they encountered an issue resulting in a negative value for the number of particles in the ground state, indicating a mistake in their calculations. A response pointed out that there were missing minus signs in the Boltzmann distribution function, which could have contributed to the error. The user acknowledged the typo but maintained that their final answer remained unchanged.
corr0105
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The question states:
A system has energy levels uniformly spaced at 3.2x10^-10 J apart. Thepopulations of the energy levels are given by the Boltzmann distribution. What fraction of particles is in the ground state at T=300K.

I know that the Boltzmann distribution is:
_{}p*j=probability that a particle is in state j
=exp(-_{}Ej/KT) / \sumexp(-_{}Ej/KT)

I created my own expression for the energy state Ej:
_{}Ej=3.2x10^-20(j-1)
My thought process behind this was that to get the energy state of each level you have to multiply by the space between each level times 1 minus the level. In other words, E1=0*3.2x10^-20, E2=1(3.2x10^-10)...etc.

I set this pj* equal to: # particles in ground state (g) / # states (t)
Assuming that the particles in the ground state would have energy E=0 I plugged all of the given values into the equation: T=300, Ej=0, K=boltzmann's constant. Because the problem did not give the number of states my answer is in terms of t. I got an answer of:
-0.25875/(1+t)
Obviously this is wrong because you cannot have a negative number of particles.


ANY IDEA WHAT I'VE DONE WRONG?
thanks in advance for any help
 
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Your Boltzmann distribution function has a couple of minus signs missing.
 
I'm sorry, you are correct. The post has been edited. It was a typo, but the answer I got still stands.
 
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