Probabilities and Counting States

Problem Set 4: Probabilities and Counting States

1. A Deck of Cards

Consider a standard deck of playing cards. There are 52 cards in total. These cards are
divided among 4 suits (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades). And within each suit, there are 13
types of cards (ace, 2, 3,...,10, jack, queen, king). Suppose you are dealt a 5-card hand from
a full, well-shuffled deck.
a How many different hands are possible? (Here, the ordering of the cards within the hand
is not important.)
b What is the probability of being dealt a flush (all 5 cards have the same suit)?
c What is the probability of being dealt one pair (two cards of the same type) and only one
pair?
d What is the probability of not getting one pair (and only one pair) until the nth hand?
Here, each successive hand is dealt from a full, well-shuffled deck.

2. The Russian Roulette

In the game of Russian roulette ( Do not try to play it at home without adult supervi-
sion), one inserts a single cartridge into the drum of a revolver, leaving the other five
chambers of the drum empty. One then spins the drum, aims at one’s head, and pulls
the trigger. For now, assume that you are playing it alone, out of sheer depression.

a What is the probability of you being still alive after playing the game N times?
b What is the probability of surviving (N − 1) turns in this game and then being
shot the N th time you pull the trigger?
c What is the mean number of times you get the opportunity of pulling the trigger in
this game?
dNow Suppose you play this game with your best friend. What is the probabil-
ity of you losing your friend if you take the first turn? if your friend takes the first turn?

Remember that for all of above scenarios, the drum is spun after every turn.

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Probabilities and Counting States

3. A Random Walk

A drunk starts out from a lamppost in the middle of a street, taking steps of equal
length either to the right or to the left with equal probability. What is the probability
that the man will again be at the lamppost after taking N steps
a if N is even?
b if N is odd?

4. More Random Walk

Consider the random walk of the drunk again but this time assume that he is twice
as likely to take a step towards right (where the pub is ) than to the left. On average,
what is the net displacement to the right after N steps?

5. Gas in a Box
Consider a gas of N0 noninteracting molecules enclosed in a container of volume V0 .
Focus attention on any subvolume V of this container and denote by N the number of
molecules located within this subvolume. Each molecule is equally likely to be located
anywhere within the container; hence the probability that a given molecule is located
V
within the subvolume V is simply equal to V0
.
a What is the mean number < N > of molecules located within V ? Express your
answer in terms of N0 , V0 and V .
b Find the relative dispersion ( a measure of fluctuations away from the mean number)
<(N −<N >)2 >
<N >2
in the number of molecules located within V . Express your answer in
terms of N , V , and V0 .
c What does the answer to part (b) become when V ≪0
d What value should the dispersion found in part (b) assume when V → V0 ?

6. Angular Momentum

In a certain quantum mechanical system the x component of the angular momentum,

Lx , is quantized and can take on only the three values −~, 0, or ~. For a given state
of the system it is known that < Lx >= 13 ~ and < L2x >= 23 ~2 . Here < Lx > is the

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Probabilities and Counting States

mean of Lx and < L2x > is the mean of the square of Lx while ~ is a constant. Find
the probability for each of the Lx values to be found in a random measurement.

7. Electron energy

The probability density ρ(E) of finding an electron with energy E in a certain system
is given by

ρ(E) =0.2δ(E + E0 ) for E < 0 (1)

1
=0.8( )e− b
E
for E < 0 (2)
b
where E0 = 1.5eV and b = 1.0eV .
a What is the probability that E > 0?
b What is the mean energy of electron?

8. The Photons
Consider the Bose-Einstein density for finding n number of electrons in a given mode
of black body radiation

ρ(n) = (1 − a)an n = 0, 1, 2 . . . , a < 1 (3)

Find the mean number of photons in this mode < n > and the variance < n2 > − <
n >2 .

9. 2-Dimensional Gas

Consider N particles living on a 2 dimensional surface. The particles move freely except
for the fact that they are confined to an area A. The particles have total energy equal
to E. Calculate the phase space volume Ω(E) of allowed states in micro-canonical
ensemble and find :

a) What is the energy in terms of temperature? How does it compare to 3-dimensional

ideal gas?

b) What is the equation relating “Pressure”, “Area” and temperature? Note that in
this case pressure is defined as force per unit length and work done on the gas is given

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Probabilities and Counting States

by

dW = −pdA

10. Balls in large dimensions

Starting with the expression for w(E), the volume of phase space with energies less
than or equal to E, for an ideal gas, show that the entropy calculated with

S = k log Ω(E)

is the same as

S = k log w(E)

in the limit of very large N . Here Ω(E) is the volume of a thin shell with energies
between E and E + ∆, and is given by

dw(E)
Ω(E) = ∆
dE
.

Copy the form of w(E) for the ideal gas from lecture notes.

11. A System of Classical Harmonic Oscillators

We can model a solid as a collection of harmonic oscillators, each atom in the crystal
lattice acting as an oscillator, vibrating around its mean position. Consider a very
simplified model of a solid, consisting of N oscillators all having same frequency w
and all are independent of each other. Each oscillator can vibrate in three directions,
again with same frequency. The total energy of the system is therefore given by, in
terms of the coordinates and momenta of each oscillator,

3N ( 2
∑ )
pi 1 2 2
H(p, q) = + mw xi
i=1
2m 2

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Probabilities and Counting States

a)Calculate the number of allowed micro states Ω(E, N ), if this system has total energy
equal to E. (Hint: You have to calculate a very similar integral as in case of ideal gas.
This time you can not integrate position coordinates trivially to give physical volume.
Change variables so that the integral becomes a volume of 6N dimensional ball.

b) Taking the formula for entropy to be S = k log Ω, find out an equation of state
dE
relating energy and temperature. Find also the heat capacity C = dT
. How does it
differ from heat capacity of ideal gasses.

Due date: April 6, 2010, 11:30 am 5