Abstract
Exact results for the thermodynamic properties of isolated freely jointed sticky trimers and tetramers are obtained by taking appropriate limits on the exact results for a single square-well chain. Two new methods for approximating the square-well potential by a sticky potential are suggested. These new methods extend greatly the range of square-well widths over which the thermodynamic properties of a single square-well chain can be estimated accurately in terms of the corresponding properties of a single sticky chain.