Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-4-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-2/section-g/31/c/ii/solution

At room temperature, the same hard-core exclusion remains temperature independent. If the spring remains stiff, the conformational distribution remains broadly similar to the low-temperature expanded-coil distribution. Finite bond-length fluctuations increase with and can slightly enlarge the length scale and distribution width. The radial bond measure also favours lengths slightly above the harmonic minimum.
The comparison depends on the dimensionless stiffness , not on the word “room” alone. There is no attractive energy in this model to produce a low-temperature globule and high-temperature coil transition. Monte Carlo decorrelation speed can change with temperature and proposal scale, but the premise already stipulates adequate equilibrium sampling in both cases.

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