Thermodynamic limit
The thermodynamic limit is reached as the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in a system approaches infinity. The thermodynamic behavior of a system is asymptotically approximated by the results of statistical mechanics as Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle N \rightarrow \infty} , and calculations using the various ensembles converge.
References
- A. Compagner "Thermodynamics as the continuum limit of statistical mechanics", American Journal of Physics 57 pp. 106-117 (1989)
- Daniel F. Styer "What good is the thermodynamic limit?", American Journal of Physics 72 pp. 25-29 (2004)
- Daniel F. Styer "Erratum: "What good is the thermodynamic limit?"", American Journal of Physics 72 p. 1110 (2004)