Boltzmann Distribution Derivation Question

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kidsasd987
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Hello, I have a question about Boltzmann Distribution.

I wonder why partial N of Nj is 1 and partial U of Nj=Ej. because N is constant, partial N of Nj has to be 0 and Partial Nj of U has to be 0 as well.

They are constants so, to make sense of the equation, alpha and beta have to be 0 but this is still absurd.

Can anyone tell me why this is true?
 

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kidsasd987 said:
Hello, I have a question about Boltzmann Distribution.

I wonder why partial N of Nj is 1 and partial U of Nj=Ej. because N is constant, partial N of Nj has to be 0 and Partial Nj of U has to be 0 as well.
With partial N of Nj you seem to mean ##\partial N\over \partial N_j##, right ?

Well, if ##\ \ A = x+y+z\ \ ## then what is ##\ \ {\partial A\over \partial x}\ \ ## according to you ?
 
BvU said:
With partial N of Nj you seem to mean ##\partial N\over \partial N_j##, right ?

Well, if ##\ \ A = x+y+z\ \ ## then what is ##\ \ {\partial A\over \partial x}\ \ ## according to you ?

if A is const, isn't it 0 where x is 0? or y,z is depedent on x where partial_x (y+z)=-1.
N is not a function. it is a constant, according to the second and third screen shot. on the second screen shot, it says we are multiplying constants by zero.Well I thought, it would make sense if N is a function because we are dealing with some unknown N number of particles. then, partial_Nj (N)=1. but since the slide says Partial_Nj(N) is 0, so.. I got lost.
 
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kidsasd987 said:
N is not a function. it is a constant
N is ##\sum N_j## and as such has a partial derivative with respect to ##N_j##. Look up the definition of partial derivative. That doesn't change because a constraint (##N## is constant) is imposed.
kidsasd987 said:
on the second screen shot, it says we are multiplying constants by zero.
That would be the sheet with "13/28" and it's nonsense. (I understand your question a lot better now :smile:)

If you look up the method of Lagrange multipliers perhaps it'll become a bit clearer, in the sense that at an extremum a necessary condition is that the gradients are linearly dependent. Hence these Lagrange multipliers ##\alpha## and ##\beta##.
It certainly isn't true that all ##\ \ {\partial \phi\over \partial N_j} \ \ ## and ##\ \ {\partial \psi\over \partial N_j} \ \ ## are zero.
 
BvU said:
N is ##\sum N_j## and as such has a partial derivative with respect to ##N_j##. Look up the definition of partial derivative. That doesn't change because a constraint (##N## is constant) is imposed.
That would be the sheet with "13/28" and it's nonsense. (I understand your question a lot better now :smile:)

If you look up the method of Lagrange multipliers perhaps it'll become a bit clearer, in the sense that at an extremum a necessary condition is that the gradients are linearly dependent. Hence these Lagrange multipliers ##\alpha## and ##\beta##.
It certainly isn't true that all ##\ \ {\partial \phi\over \partial N_j} \ \ ## and ##\ \ {\partial \psi\over \partial N_j} \ \ ## are zero.

Thanks a lot. I spent quite a lot of time on figuring out what went wrong in the note and what I did wrong.
Thank you!