microstate
/ˈmaɪkroʊˌsteɪt/
noun
- A very small, independent country, especially one with a tiny land area and population.
- Many microstates in Europe have special agreements with larger neighboring countries.
- Vatican City is a famous microstate located entirely within Rome.
- Monaco is a wealthy microstate known for its casinos and Grand Prix race.
- In physics and chemistry, one of the many possible arrangements of particles (such as atoms or molecules) that correspond to the same overall energy level or macrostate.
- The entropy of a system is related to the number of possible microstates it can have.
- Calculating all the microstates helps scientists understand how heat flows in a gas.
- In thermodynamics, each microstate represents a specific distribution of energy among molecules.
Synonyms