Edexcel A2 Physics

Unit 5: Physics from Creation to Collapse

Topic 1: Thermal Energy
Internal Energy

 When an object is heated, it is given energy.

 This energy comes from the kinetic energy of the particles in the object being heated.
 Kinetic theory states that the thermal energy is transferred to the kinetic energy of the
particles. In solids, this kinetic energy usually causes vibrations. In gases, the
particles moves with much greater speeds.
 When a stationary object is heated, it does not have kinetic energy overall.
 The sum of the particles’ kinetic energies must be zero, otherwise the object would
be moving.
 A measure of the overall kinetic energy of the particles is given by the absolute
temperature (measured in Kelvins) where absolute zero is -273.15oC.

 All the particles will also have some potential energy due to intermolecular bonds.
 ∑Internal energy = ∑Kinetic Energy + ∑Potential Energy

 If part of an object is hotter than other, the hotter parts’ particles have more kinetic
energy that the cooler parts.
 There is a change in internal energy, allowing the energy to become equally
distributed among the particles.
 This explains why heat passes from hotter areas to cooler areas.

Specific Heat Capacity

 Even if two objects gain the same internal energy, they won’t necessarily undergo
the same change in temperature.
 This means that different objects have different specific heat capacities.

∆𝑬 = 𝒎𝒄∆𝜽
 In this equation:
o ∆E is the change in internal energy.
o m is the mass of ‘object’ being heated.
o c is the specific heat capacity.
o ∆θ is the change in temperature.
 Specific heat capacity has units of J kg-1K-1
 Specific heat capacity is basically the energy needed to raise the temperature of
1kg of a substance by 1K.
 This is different for different substances.
 Don’t forget: you may have to use P = E/t.
 The Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution

 Not all molecules have the same kinetic and potential energies.
 The kinetic energy of particles is modelled by the Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution.

D
Number of particles

Kinetic energy of
 Several important features: particles
o No molecules have zero kinetic energy
o Very few molecules have lots of kinetic energy
o There is no maximum energy that a molecule can have.
 The graph is different for different temperatures.
 As the temperature increases, the peak is shifted to the right but it goes lower. It
moves towards higher energies.
 The area under the curve increases.

There are two ways of finding the most probable speed of particles:
 Reading off the peak of the Maxwell-Boltzmann curve
 Finding the root-mean-square speed (√<𝒄𝟐 >), which is more useful.
 This is the speed associated with the average kinetic energy of the particles, so that
E = ½m<c2>.

Kinetic Theory Of Gases

 The average kinetic energy of particles is directly proportional to their absolute

temperature:

𝟏 𝟑
𝟐
𝒎<𝒄𝟐 > = 𝟐𝒌𝑻

 k is the Boltzmann constant, which is 1.38 × 10-23 J K-1.

 This equation means that if an object is at absolute zero, their particles’ root mean
square speed must also be zero (since their mass can’t change).

 Boyle’s law is this:

o For a gas whose mass and temperature are constant, the volume occupied by
the gas is inversely proportional to its pressure.
𝟏
o More simply, 𝑽 ∝ 𝑷.

 Charles’ law is this:

 o For a gas whose mass and temperature are constant, the volume occupied by
the gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature.
o More simply, 𝑽 ∝ 𝑻.
 These two laws create another law, that:
o For a gas whose mass and temperature are constant, the pressure exerted by
the gas is proportional to its absolute temperature.
o So 𝑷 ∝ 𝑻.

Ideal gases

 For different gases, these law’s don’t perfectly apply. They only apply for
theoretical ideal gases.
 For example, if T = 0, Charles’ law states that the volumes of a gas would be zero as
well! This is not possible!
 There are several properties of an ideal gas:
o The size of the molecules is zero.
o All molecules are identical.
o The particles collide with zero time.
o They collide without loss of energy.
o Aside from collisions, the molecules exert no forces on each other.
o There are enough molecules for statistics to be applied.

Combining the ideal gas laws:

𝑷𝑽 = 𝑵𝒌𝑻 or 𝑷𝑽 = 𝒏𝑹𝑻
 N is the number of molecules of gas.
 n is the number of moles of gas.
 k is the Boltzmann constant.
 R is the universal gas constant, which is 8.31 J kg-1 mol-1.