Relative energy fluctuation of a monatomic ideal gas (${\sigma }_U/U=\sqrt{2/(3N)}$)

At fixed particle number and volume, a classical monatomic ideal gas has $U=3N{k}_{B}T/2$ and $C_V=3N{k}_B/2$. The canonical energy fluctuation identity $\mathrm{Var}(E)=k_B{T}^2{C}_V$ therefore gives ${\sigma }_U/U=\sqrt{2/(3N)}$. Absolute fluctuations grow as $\sqrt{N}$, while relative fluctuations decrease as $N^{-1/2}$. A particle reservoir changes the fluctuation problem because energy and particle-number fluctuations are then correlated.