Calculating microstates

[KNguyen_1I]

Today in lecture we started covering the Boltzmann's equation, which involves calculating the number of microstates to calculate entropy.
How do you calculate the microstates, even for a simple two state system like the one Dr. Lavelle showed in class? I don't understand the conceptual reasoning nor the mathematics.

[ThomasNguyen_Dis1H]

Calculating the number of microstates is just the number of states to the power of how many molecule. For example, if we had 2 states aka the left and the right and 2 molecules you can have 4 possible outcomes. Molecule A and B in left and right together, or the two molecules on opposite sides which totals to 4 possible microstates. It's just statistics and all you need to know is W=2^n where n is number of molecules.

[Charlene Datu 2E]

To clarify, this us the total number of possible combinations of states of matter that the two particles can be in? Does that mean that the base of the equation is referring to the number of particles and the exponent is referring to the number of possible states they can be in?

[Subashni Rajiv 1K]

Yes, that'd be correct.