Boltzmann Hard-Sphere Gas

Emergent Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution from elastic collisions

Simulation

Statistics

Collisions0
⟨v²⟩ (sim)
⟨v²⟩ (theory)
T_eq (actual)
Entropy (relat.)

Physics

Hard disks in 2D: elastic collisions conserve energy & momentum. Starting from any initial condition, the system ergodically explores phase space and the velocity distribution converges to:

f(v) = (m/2πkT) exp(−mv²/2kT)

This is the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution — Boltzmann's H-theorem guarantees entropy increases until this equilibrium is reached.

The histogram (blue) should match the MB curve (orange dashed) at equilibrium. Watch it emerge from the initial delta-function distribution!