Definition D.1.3.
A macrostate is the complete specification of the measurable macroscopic properties that characterize a physical system at a given instant.
The collection of all state variables defines the macrostate of a physical system.
Subsection D.1.2 Macrostates and Microstates
Macrostates.
Example D.1.4 Macrostate examples.
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temperature
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pressure
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volume
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particle number
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charge
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electric potential
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magnetization
Remark D.1.5.
A macrostate is typically a compressed description of a much larger collection of microscopic information. Remark D.1.7 illustrates that macroscopic descriptions necessarily discard microscopic detail.
Microstates.
Definition D.1.6.
A microstate is a complete microscopic description of a physical system that specifies the state of every constituent degree of freedom.
Remark D.1.7.
Multiple different microstates may give rise to the same macrostate.
