If you consider a very small object such as a grain of pollen, in a gas, then the number of atoms and molecules striking its surface would also be relatively small. Would the grain of pollen experience any fluctuations in pressure due to statistical fluctuations in the number of gas atoms and molecules striking it in a given amount of time?
Yes. Such fluctuations actually occur for a body of any size in a gas, but since the numbers of atoms and molecules are immense for macroscopic bodies, the fluctuations are a tiny percentage of the number of collisions, and the averages spoken of in this section vary imperceptibly. Roughly speaking the fluctuations are proportional to the inverse square root of the number of collisions, so for small bodies they can become significant. This was actually observed in the 19th century for pollen grains in water, and is known as the Brownian effect.
Pump gas molecules into a box and see what happens as you change the volume, add or remove heat, change gravity, and more. Measure the temperature and pressure, and discover how the properties of the gas vary in relation to each other.
Section summary
Kinetic theory is the atomistic description of gases as well as liquids and solids.
Kinetic theory models the properties of matter in terms of continuous random motion of atoms and molecules.
The ideal gas law can also be expressed as
where
is the pressure (average force per unit area),
is the volume of gas in the container,
is the number of molecules in the container,
is the mass of a molecule, and
is the average of the molecular speed squared.
Thermal energy is defined to be the average translational kinetic energy
of an atom or molecule.
The temperature of gases is proportional to the average translational kinetic energy of atoms and molecules.
or
The motion of individual molecules in a gas is random in magnitude and direction. However, a gas of many molecules has a predictable distribution of molecular speeds, known as the
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution .
Conceptual questions
How is momentum related to the pressure exerted by a gas? Explain on the atomic and molecular level, considering the behavior of atoms and molecules.
Average atomic and molecular speeds
are large, even at low temperatures. What is
for helium atoms at 5.00 K, just one degree above helium’s liquefaction temperature?
(a) What is the average kinetic energy in joules of hydrogen atoms on the
surface of the Sun? (b) What is the average kinetic energy of helium atoms in a region of the solar corona where the temperature is
?
The escape velocity of any object from Earth is 11.2 km/s. (a) Express this speed in m/s and km/h. (b) At what temperature would oxygen molecules (molecular mass is equal to 32.0 g/mol) have an average velocity
equal to Earth’s escape velocity of 11.1 km/s?
The escape velocity from the Moon is much smaller than from Earth and is only 2.38 km/s. At what temperature would hydrogen molecules (molecular mass is equal to 2.016 g/mol) have an average velocity
equal to the Moon’s escape velocity?
Nuclear fusion, the energy source of the Sun, hydrogen bombs, and fusion reactors, occurs much more readily when the average kinetic energy of the atoms is high—that is, at high temperatures. Suppose you want the atoms in your fusion experiment to have average kinetic energies of
. What temperature is needed?
Suppose that the average velocity
of carbon dioxide molecules (molecular mass is equal to 44.0 g/mol) in a flame is found to be
. What temperature does this represent?
Much of the gas near the Sun is atomic hydrogen. Its temperature would have to be
for the average velocity
to equal the escape velocity from the Sun. What is that velocity?
There are two important isotopes of uranium—
and
; these isotopes are nearly identical chemically but have different atomic masses. Only
is very useful in nuclear reactors. One of the techniques for separating them (gas diffusion) is based on the different average velocities
of uranium hexafluoride gas,
. (a) The molecular masses for
and
are 349.0 g/mol and 352.0 g/mol, respectively. What is the ratio of their average velocities? (b) At what temperature would their average velocities differ by 1.00 m/s? (c) Do your answers in this problem imply that this technique may be difficult?
Wayne and Dennis like to ride the bike path from Riverside Park to the beach. Dennis’s speed is seven miles per hour faster than Wayne’s speed, so it takes Wayne 2 hours to ride to the beach while it takes Dennis 1.5 hours for the ride. Find the speed of both bikers.
from theory: distance [miles] = speed [mph] × time [hours]
info #1
speed_Dennis × 1.5 = speed_Wayne × 2
=> speed_Wayne = 0.75 × speed_Dennis (i)
info #2
speed_Dennis = speed_Wayne + 7 [mph] (ii)
use (i) in (ii) => [...]
speed_Dennis = 28 mph
speed_Wayne = 21 mph
George
Let W be Wayne's speed in miles per hour and D be Dennis's speed in miles per hour. We know that W + 7 = D and W * 2 = D * 1.5.
Substituting the first equation into the second:
W * 2 = (W + 7) * 1.5
W * 2 = W * 1.5 + 7 * 1.5
0.5 * W = 7 * 1.5
W = 7 * 3 or 21
W is 21
D = W + 7
D = 21 + 7
D = 28
Salma
Devon is 32 32 years older than his son, Milan. The sum of both their ages is 54 54. Using the variables d d and m m to represent the ages of Devon and Milan, respectively, write a system of equations to describe this situation. Enter the equations below, separated by a comma.
please why is it that the 0is in the place of ten thousand
Grace
Send the example to me here and let me see
Stephen
A meditation garden is in the shape of a right triangle, with one leg 7 feet. The length of the hypotenuse is one more than the length of one of the other legs. Find the lengths of the hypotenuse and the other leg
however, may I ask you some questions about Algarba?
Amoon
hi
Enock
what the last part of the problem mean?
Roger
The Jones family took a 15 mile canoe ride down the Indian River in three hours. After lunch, the return trip back up the river took five hours. Find the rate, in mph, of the canoe in still water and the rate of the current.
Shakir works at a computer store. His weekly pay will be either a fixed amount, $925, or $500 plus 12% of his total sales. How much should his total sales be for his variable pay option to exceed the fixed amount of $925.
I'm guessing, but it's somewhere around $4335.00 I think
Lewis
12% of sales will need to exceed 925 - 500, or 425 to exceed fixed amount option. What amount of sales does that equal? 425 ÷ (12÷100) = 3541.67. So the answer is sales greater than 3541.67.
Check:
Sales = 3542
Commission 12%=425.04
Pay = 500 + 425.04 = 925.04.
925.04 > 925.00
Munster
difference between rational and irrational numbers
Jazmine trained for 3 hours on Saturday. She ran 8 miles and then biked 24 miles. Her biking speed is 4 mph faster than her running speed. What is her running speed?