Macroscopic and

microscopic approach

SUBMITTED BY
Name- Prithwish kumar sutradhar.
Branch- Mechanical Engg.
Roll no- 27/ME/20/13
Diploma 3rd sem 2nd year
 Energy
In physics, energy is the quantitative property that must be
transferred to an object in order to perform work on, or to heat, the
object.The SI unit of energy is the joule, which is the energy
transferred to an object by the work of moving it a distance of 1
metre against a force of 1 newton.
There are two groups of energy.
● Macroscopic form.
● Microscopic form.
 Macroscopic form of
Those forms of energy that aenergy
system posses as a whole with respect to
some outside referrance frame such as kinetic and potential energy are
the macroscopic forms. It is related to motion and influence of external
effects such as gravity, magnitism, surface tension etc.
Kinetic energy

The energy posses by a system as a result of its relative motion relative to

some referrence frame.
Examples of Kinetic Energy:
1. An airplane has a large amount of kinetic energy in flight due to its
large mass and fast velocity. KE = 1/2mv2
 POTENTIAL ENERGY
The energy possesed by the system as a result of its elevation in a
gravitational field.
Examples of Potential Energy:
1. A coiled spring.
PE = mgh
 Microscopic form of
energy
Microscopic forms are those which are related to molecular
structure of system. They are independent of outside referrence
frames. The sum of microscopic energy is called internal energy.
The total energy of a system consists of kinetic, potential, and
internal energy.
Total energy, E = U(internal) + KE(kinetic) + PE(potential)
= U + (1/2mv2 ) + (mgh)
 INTERNAL ENERGY
It is the energy possesed by a system due to its molecular
arrangement and motion of the molecules. And it is usually
represented as ‘U’.
 Compavative description between
macroscopic and microscopic
approach.Microscopic approach
Macroscopic approach
1. In this approach a sudden quantity
of matter is considered without
taking into account the events
occuring at molecular level. This
approach is concerned with gross
or overall behaviour. This is also
known as classical
thermodynamics.
1. This approach considers that the
system is made up of a very large
number of discripte particles
known as molecules. This
molecules have different
velocities and energies. This
values are constantly changing
with time. This is also known as
statistical thermodynamics.
2. The analysis of macroscopic system
requires simple mathematical formula.
3. The values of the properties of the
system are baised on their avarage values.
For eg. Pressure and temp. can be
measured easily and comes under macro
approach.
4. In order to describe a system only a
fewproperties are needed i.e, a simpler
approach.
2. The behaviour of microscopic system
is found with statistical methods. It
requires advance mathematical methods to
explain the change in the system.
3. The properties like velocity,
momentum, impulse, kinetic energy, force
of impact etc. comes under micro
approach, as it cannot be easily measured.
4. Requires large number of variables to
describe a system, hence complicated
approach.