For the one-dimensional freely jointed chain, counting right- and left-pointing links gives
Therefore
Choosing which links point right gives the state degeneracy
Put . Applying the Stirling formula to and discarding terms subleading in yields
The extension of the one-dimensional freely jointed chain is
As the integer runs from to , the possible extensions are therefore
For fixed and , choosing which of the links point in the positive direction determines the microstate. The state degeneracy is consequently the binomial coefficient
Several microstates can have the same extension. If denotes their state degeneracy, grouping equal terms in the state sum gives
For the one-dimensional freely jointed chain, a macrostate with positive links and negative links has
Hence
The binomial theorem now gives the fixed-tension partition function of a one-dimensional chain