Determination of Boltzmann constant by equipartition theorem for capacitors

Abstract

A new experimental set-up for Boltzmann constant measurement is described. Statistically averaged square of voltage $\left<U^2\right>$ is measured for different capacitances $C$. Boltzmann constant is determined by the equipartition theorem $C\left<U^2\right>=k_{_\mathrm{B}}T$. For fixed capacitance, voltages could be measured for different temperatures. The set-up consists of low-noise high frequency operational amplifiers ADA4898-2. An instrumental amplifier is followed by an inverting amplifier, square of the voltage is created by an analog multiplier AD633 and finally the averaged signal is measured by a multimeter.