The current through an ion channel protein can be measured as a function of time using a patch clamp apparatus. A particular channel is found to have a probability of being open of popen = 0.24. The data is fitted to a model with two states having energies Eclosed and Eopen Estimate the difference in energy between the closed and open states, AE = Eopen - Eclosed as a multiple of the thermal energy kgT. %3D