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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.
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>.
𝟏 𝟑
𝟐
𝒎<𝒄𝟐 > = 𝟐𝒌𝑻
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.
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.