THERMAL PROPERTIES OF MATTER

Heat
It is a form of energy which flows from a body at a higher temperature to a body at a lower
temperature
Temperature
It measures the degree of hotness or coldness of a body.
Inter conversion from one temperature scale to another

 K = 0 C + 273
℉−32 ℃
 =
9 5
Thermal Expansion
This is the change in dimension of the body due to heating
Linear Expansion
When a body is heated such that its length increases, it is said to undergo linear expansion. If ‘L’
is the initial length of the body, ∆L is the increase in length and ∆T is the increase in
temperature,
It is found that ∆ L/L = α ∆ T , where ‘α’ is the coefficient of linear expansion. It is defined as
change in length per initial length per degree rise in temperature
α = ∆ L/ L ∆ T
Area Expansion/Surface expansion
When a body is heated such that its area changes, it undergoes area expansion. It is found that
∆A
=β ∆ T , where ‘β’ is the coefficient of surface expansion
A
Volume expansion
When a body is heated such that its volume changes it undergoes volume expansion.
Coefficient of volume expansion ϒ =∆ V /V ∆ T
NOTE: β =2α
ϒ =3α
Specific heat capacity : It is the amount of heat per unit mass absorbed or rejected by the
substance to change its temperature by one unit.
S= ∆ Q /m ∆ T
If the amount of substance is specified in moles, then we call it as molar specific heat capacity
‘C’. In connection with specific heat capacity of gases, if the gas is held under constant pressure,
it is called molar specific heat capacity at constant pressure C P and if the gas is held under
constant volume, it is called molar specific heat capacity at constant volume C V.
Principle of Calorimetry
When two bodies at different temperature are brought in contact, heat flows from the body at
higher temperature to the body at a lower temperature until they attain a state of thermal
equilibrium.
Change of state
*The change of state from solid to vapour without passing through the liquid state is called
sublimation.
*The phenomenon of refreezing is called regelation
*Latent heat of fusion is the amount of heat required to change the state of unit mass of
substance from solid to liquid without change in temperature.
* Latent heat of vaporisation is the amount of heat required to change the state of unit mass of
substance from liquid to gas without change in temperature.
*The quantity of heat required is Q=mL, where ‘ L‘is latent heat
Heat Transfer
1) Conduction
It is the mechanism of transfer of heat between two adjacent parts of a body because of their
temperature difference.
Consider a metallic bar of length ‘L’ and area of cross section ‘A’ with temperature difference
between both ends as T1 and T2 (T1 > T2 ) . The rate of flow of heat,
H= KA (T1 –T2) / L
Here K is called the thermal conductivity of the material.
2) Convection
It is the mode of heat transfer in fluids by actual motion of matter. Convection can be natural or
forced. When a fluid is heated from below, the hot part expands, rises up and the lower cold
part replaces it. In forced convection, the material is forced to move by some physical means.
Examples of natural convection are land and sea breeze, trade winds etc.
 3) Radiation
It is the mode of heat transfer which can operate between bodies in vacuum. The energy
radiated by em waves from sun is the radiant energy.
Black body radiation
A body which absorbs all the radiations falling on it is called a black body.
Wein’s Displacement Law
The product of wavelength (for which maximum energy is emitted) and the absolute
temperature is a constant.
λm x T = b where b = Wein’s constant = 0.0028 K.m
Stefan- Boltzman Law
Total energy radiated by a black body per unit area per second is directly proportional to fourth
power of temperature
E = σ T4 where σ =Stefan’s constant = 5.67 x 10-8 Wm-2K-4
Newton’s Law of cooling
The rate of loss of heat of a body is directly proportional to the difference of temperature of the
body and the surrounding.
-dQ/dt = k (T1 –T2)

KINETIC THEORY

Kinetic theory explains the behavior of gases based on the idea that the gas consists of rapidly
moving atoms or molecules. Kinetic theory gives a molecular interpretation of pressure and
temperature of a gas and is consistent with gas laws and Avogadro’s hypothesis.
Avogadro’s Law : Equal volumes of all gases at equal temperature and pressure have the same
number of molecules.
Gay Lussac’s Law : At constant volume, pressure of a given mass of an ideal gas is directly
proportional to its absolute temperature
Behaviour of gases
Perfect gas equation : PV = µ RT
where µ stands for the number of moles, R = universal gas constant = 8.314 J. mol -1 K-1
Kinetic theory of an ideal gas
* All gases consists of molecules which behave as perfect elastic spheres.
* The molecules are always in random motion with velocities ranging from zero to infinity
* The molecules collide with each other and the walls of the container , with the collisions being
perfectly elastic
* The size of the molecules is very small when compared to the distance between successive
collisions.
Pressure exerted by an ideal gas
Consider an ideal gas enclosed in a container. 'm' is the mass of each gas molecule, 'n' is the
number of molecules per unit volume and 'v' is the velocity of a gas molecule at any instant.
1
pressure exerted by the gas molecules P = mnv2
3
1 2
Also pressure, P = ρv where' ρ ' is the density of the gas.
3
Kinetic interpretation of temperature
1 2 1
P = mnv2 = n x mv2
3 3 2
2 N
= ( ) x kinetic energy of gas molecule
3 V
2
PV = N x kinetic energy -------( 1)
3
also PV = RT = NKBT ---------(2)
3
from (1) and (2) K.E = KT
2 B
i.e, the average kinetic energy of a molecule is proportional to the absolute temperature of
the gas.
Mean free path : It is the average distance a molecule can travel between two successive
collisions.
Degrees of freedom (f)
It is defined as the total number of coordinates or independent quantities required to describe
the configuration of a system completely.
f = 3N - K , N = no. of particles, K= no of independent relations
1) For monatomic gas : N= 1 , K = 0
f=3
2) For diatomic gas : N= 2, K = 1
f=5
3) For tri atomic gas : N = 3,
a) If linear, K=2 ,f=7
b) If non- linear, K = 3, f = 6

Law of equipartition of energy

For a dynamic system in thermal equilibrium, the energy of the system is equally distributed
amongst the various degrees of freedom and energy associated with each degree of freedom
1
per molecule is KB T.
2
rms speed of gas molecules
It is the square root of mean of squares of the speeds of gas molecules.
vrms = √ 3 kT /m