The Thermodynamic equilibrium reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Thermodynamic equilibrium

In thermodynamics, a thermodynamic system is in thermodynamic equilibrium if its energy distribution equals a Maxwell-Boltzmann-distribution. This allows to attribute a temperature to the system. The process that leads to a thermodynamic equilibrium is called thermalization.

A prominent example of a thermalizing system is that of a system of interacting particles that is left undisturbed.

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