Residual Energy - 4G5 positions

[Alexis Harouni]

I know the formula W = x^n, but how do you find x, how do you know the possible positions that a molecule could be? Specifically for question 4G5 in the textbook, how did they get 12?

[406135406]

I like to think of it as how many slots are there where the particle in question could be?

On this question, if you draw it out, there are 12 scenarios where the two red particles are next to each other. Therefore, the base of the exponent is 12. Because it is 1 mole, you use Avogadro's number for how many particles there are.

[Brian Cho 3E]

Another way is that the problem can simply just state that there is only one possible orientation or that there are one to three possible orientations which means that the number of orientations would be three.

[Destiny Caldwell 3J]

The formula you mentioned represents the number of possible microstates in a system, where x is the number of possible arrangements (positions, configurations, or states) for each particle or molecule. I don't know what question your specifically referring to so I am unable to help you understand how to answer it.