Difference Between Microstate and Macrostate

Thekey differencebetween microstate and macrostate is thatMicrostate是指A的微观配置thermodynamicsystem, whereas macrostate refers to the macroscopic properties of a thermodynamic system.

微晶和宏观盐是用于热力学系统的两种形式的化学概念。Microstate of a thermodynamic system describes the microscopic properties of the system while macrostate describes the macroscopic properties. Generally, the properties of macrostate are averaged over many microstates.

CONTENTS

1.Overview and Key Difference
2.What is Microstate
3.What is Macrostate
4.Side by Side Comparison – Microstate vs Macrostate in Tabular Form
5.概括

What is Microstate?

Microstate is a term that describes the microscopic properties of a thermodynamic system. In classical thermodynamics, it describes that thermodynamic systems are macroscopic systems containing macroscopic properties. However, all these thermodynamic systems are made up ofatoms; therefore, it is very important to understand the microstate of the system as well, which specifies thequantumstate of all the atoms in the system.

For example, the changes in the microstate can be as small as 10³⁵times than a macrostate, but there are still changes in this scale which may have no effect at the macrostate. A single macrostate contains a very large number of microstates. Therefore, one macrostate may contain several different microstates. In other words, we can predict the changes in the macrostate of the thermodynamic system via averaging the changes of microstates.

What is Macrostate?

Macrostate is the term that describes the macroscopic properties of a thermodynamic system. The most commonly measured macroscopic properties include temperature,pressure,volume and density. A macrostate is definitely larger than a microstate. As described above, some slight changes, which are large changes in the microstate, may not have a considerable change in the macrostate due to this size difference. Therefore, macrostates give a rough measurement of the thermodynamic system, instead of complete details with slight fluctuations.

Figure 1 indicates the relationship between microstate and macrostate regarding the process of flipping a coin twice. H refers to the “head” and “T” refers to the tail of the coin. All microstates are equally probable, but macrostate (H, T) is twice as probable as macrostates (H, H) and (T, T).

What is the Difference Between Microstate and Macrostate?

微晶和宏观盐是用于热力学系统的两种形式的化学概念。微骨和宏观物质之间的关键区别在于，微骨一词是指热力学系统的微观构型，而宏观染料是指热力学系统的宏观特性。

Moreover, we can predict the changes in the macrostate of the thermodynamic system via averaging the changes of microstates. For example, the changes in the microstate can be as small as 10³⁵times than a macrostate, but there are still changes in this scale which may have no effect on the macrostate.

下面的表总结了差异een microstate and macrostate.

概括– Microstate vs Macrostate

微晶和宏观盐是用于热力学系统的两种形式的化学概念。微骨和宏观物质之间的关键区别在于，微骨一词是指热力学系统的微观构型，而宏观染料是指热力学系统的宏观特性。

Reference:

1. “Microstates and Macrostates.” Theoretical Physics, University of Manchester,Available here.
2. “Microstate.” Microstate – an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics,Available here.
3. “Microstate (Statistical Mechanics).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Dec. 2019,Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. Adwaele在英语Wikipedia上撰写的“热力学系统01b”(CC BY-SA 3.0)viaCommons Wikimedia
2. “Macrostates and microstates of two coins” By Mgunyho – Own work(CC BY-SA 4.0)viaCommons Wikimedia