Classically, the thermal noise in electrical

circuits and

series circuits is governed by the equipartition law

, where

is the noise voltage developed across

. When quantum effects are taken into account, the equipartition law no longer holds for

circuits, although an equipartition law can be deemed for the measured mean square noise voltage under certain conditions. In

series circuits the equipartition law

, changes into

for high-

tuned circuits, where

is the average energy of a harmonic oscillator tuned at the tuning frequency of the tuned circuit.