tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834252248412211498.post2388654893085391311..comments2023-10-02T19:15:59.038+10:00Comments on BIPH3001-Frontiers in Biophysics 2010: Mitch Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435777631824415803noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834252248412211498.post-27548053296798529902010-08-31T22:41:57.131+10:002010-08-31T22:41:57.131+10:00What are you referring to when you say units of ac...What are you referring to when you say units of action? Is it the per second part of J.s = m^2 kg / s. And the volume element of phase space is that just a measure of how much of something is moving in this single direction of motion?Calvin Lowehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08534804973494602576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834252248412211498.post-65602803688354823772010-08-30T07:07:59.307+10:002010-08-30T07:07:59.307+10:00Planck's constant has the units of action; thi...Planck's constant has the units of action; this means that it has the same units of as the "volume element" of the phase space associated with a single direction of motion (this would be an "area" to most, but I mean "volume" in a generalized sense...)<br /><br />The idea that the phase space comes in "bins" of minimal volume h is fortuitous, because it was already being used without apparent justification long before quantum mechanics arose. Even Boltzmann found it impossible to derive meaningful expressions for the entropy of phase space densities without using a discrete binning and counting procedure. <br /><br />For this reason and others, it is nearly impossible to find basic texts on statistical mechanics that do not begin with the statement that quantum mechanics allows us to discretize the problem.Seth Olsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09304457461800104790noreply@blogger.com