Determination of the Boltzmann constant by the equipartition theorem for capacitors
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2019-04-08
External link to pdf file
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85067097643&origin=inward
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
A new experimental set-up for measurement of the Boltzmann constant is described. The statistically averaged square of voltage U2 is measured for different capacitances C. The Boltzmann constant is determined by the equipartition theorem C U2 k T = . For fixed capacitance, voltages could be measured for different temperatures. The set-up consists of low-noise, highfrequency operational amplifiers ADA4898-2. An instrumental amplifier is followed by an inverting amplifier, the square of the voltage is created by an analog multiplier AD633, and finally, the averaged signal is measured by a multimeter. More than ten high-school students were able to measure the Boltzmann constant with the experimental set-up in the 5th Experimental Physics Olympiad with excellent accuracy compared to the price, conditions and available time for the experiment. A new derivation of the important statistical physics theorems by Nyquist and Callen-Welton is given in an appendix at the level of introductory courses in physics studied by future teachers. To understand the work of the experimental set-up, it is only necessary to know the equipartition theorem.