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Approach of a System of Particles towards Thermal Equilibrium

​
start/stop evolution
dt
0.02
hold state
elastic modulus
0.25
min. initial separation of particles
0.5
absolute value of initial velocity
0.4
radius of particle
0.75
relative filling level
0.5
initial velocity angular range
0.5
number of particles
100
In this simple model, a rigid spherical container contains identical spherical, perfectly elastic particles with the same radius and initially with the same energy. Colliding particles that overlap by
h
cause a repelling force proportional to
2
h
. This redistributes the energy of the collision partners even for binary collisions, where the total energy of the colliding pair remains constant. This redistribution broadens the initially concentrated distribution to an exponential Boltzmann distribution. Such an energy distribution is known from statistical thermodynamics to apply to systems in thermal equilibrium. This Demonstration shows how amazingly fast this energy distribution is attained, although short-lived fluctuations may be observed. Control labels and graphics are explained in tooltips that appear when you mouseover them.
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