Microstate (thermodynamics)

In thermodynamics, a microstate describes a specific detailed microscopic configuration of a system.

In contrast, the macrostate of a system refers to its macroscopic bulk properties such as its temperature and pressure.

Large numbers of distinct microstates can all have the same macroscopic appearance, and thus a macrostate can be regarded as a simplified description of a large set of possible microstates. The entropy of a macrostate can be defined in terms of the size of its set of microstates, and vice versa.

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See also:

• phase
• degrees of freedom
• quantum physics
• ergodic hypothesis
• statistical mechanics
• statistical ensemble

External links

• Some illustrations of microstates vs. macrostates