## n in degeneracy

Boltzmann Equation for Entropy: $S = k_{B} \ln W$

Katherine Grillo 1B
Posts: 69
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:28 am

### n in degeneracy

When calculating degeneracy, does the number of available particles mean the number of UNIQUE available particles? For example would n=2 or 1 if the molecule is 02?

Swetha Ampabathina1I
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:18 am

### Re: n in degeneracy

n would equal 1

Janice Park 1E
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:22 am

### Re: n in degeneracy

When calculating degeneracy, n should equal the number of particles (or in this case, molecules) that can exist in a certain state.
So in your question, we would to know about the entire molecule of O2 gas that is in a certain energy state, so n would equal 1.

Ray Huang 1G
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:20 am

### Re: n in degeneracy

Molecules means the whole thing. O2 is one molecule therefore n = 1. You may be thinking of atoms of O in O2 for n = 2 which is incorrect.

LaurenJuul_1B
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:17 am

### Re: n in degeneracy

n is the number of molecules, not individual atoms

Olivia L 4E
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Been upvoted: 1 time

### Re: n in degeneracy

In the equation for degeneracy, W=(number of potential positions)^(n) in which n represents the number of molecules. This is because the base (number of positions possible) already accounts for the atoms and their positions so n dictates how many molecules there are that you need to take into consideration. For example, the molecule CH3F can have 4 different lewis structures of the same energy level because you can rearrange the h-atoms and f-atom in 4 different ways (c-atom always in center). That being said, if you had 1 CH3F molecules, W=4 but if you had 2 CH3F molecules, W=16.

Aili Ye 4L
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:16 am

### Re: n in degeneracy

n is the number of molecules, not atoms, so in this case n would be 1.

Esther Lee 4H
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:29 am

### Re: n in degeneracy

it is on the whole molecule so if you have O2 it is 1 because its only oxygen

Jacqueline Duong 1H
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:28 am

### Re: n in degeneracy

n is the number of molecules, so n would equal 1

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