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Equation 17 · Part 7 · The Statistical Mechanics of Irreversibility at Molecular Scale

addition

dU=δW+δQ,dU = \delta W + \delta Q,
addition

What this part means

Add the term after the plus sign to the term or group before it.

Its job in the formula

Add the term after the plus sign to the term or group before it.

The passage around this formula

For an overdamped particle in a potential U(x,λ\lambda) , an infinitesimal energy balance can be written schematically as dU=δW+δQdU = \delta W + \delta Q. with work associated with changing the control parameter and heat associated with motion through the force field. The distinction depends on the physical protocol, not merely on algebraic rearrangement. Stochastic energetics must also specify a calculus convention when multiplicative noise is present.

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Learn the underlying idea

Addition combines quantities; subtraction measures the signed difference between them. Parentheses show what is combined before the rest of the expression is evaluated.

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Sources cited in the article section

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