A polymer coil has Kuhn segments

PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Condensed Matter, Materials & Soft Matter · Soft condensed matter · Soft condensed matter

Soft Matter at the Thermal Scale, Ch The size and shape of a polymer chain

Problem

A polymer coil has

N = 900

Kuhn segments, each of Kuhn length

b = 0.8\,\mathrm{nm}

, and its end-to-end vector

\mathbf R

follows the Gaussian chain distribution. ((a)) Calculate

\langle R^2\rangle^{1/2}

. ((b)) Calculate the most probable value of

|\mathbf R|

, and state whether it is zero.