We investigate whether the orientational contribution to the free energy of a twohyphen;dimensional system of hard rectangular rods will assist in the formation of a solid phase from an anisotropic fluid phase. At a density of 77percnt; of closehyphen;packed (where independent evidence exists for a hardhyphen;square fluidhyphen;solid transition) the orientational pressure and free energy are a small fraction of the corresponding values for the solid phase and furthermore the slope of the orientational pressure versus density acts against the formation of a solid phase. We conclude that a hardhyphen;square fluidhyphen;solid transition does not automatically imply a corresponding transition for hard rectangles.
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