- #1
Kairos
- 182
- 16
I suddenly have a problem with the famous Maxwell velocity distribution. The maximum of this bell-shaped curve is commonly interpreted as the most probable velocity for a particle (see for instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell–Boltzmann_distribution: "The most probable speed, vp, is the speed most likely to be possessed by any molecule..")
But according to Boltzmann's distribution the most probable energy for a particle is zero (decreasing exponential: P(E=Ei) = Exp(-Ei/kT)/Σ), so we should expect that the most probable velocity for a randomly picked particle is zero as well? but the probability of velocity zero is zero in the Maxwell distribution!
thank you in advance if you can enlighten me
But according to Boltzmann's distribution the most probable energy for a particle is zero (decreasing exponential: P(E=Ei) = Exp(-Ei/kT)/Σ), so we should expect that the most probable velocity for a randomly picked particle is zero as well? but the probability of velocity zero is zero in the Maxwell distribution!
thank you in advance if you can enlighten me