Sentences with phrase «total kinetic energy of the molecules»
The «temperature» of a gas (if you must use a compound term) is a measure of the total kinetic energy of the molecules in the volume of gas being measured.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/ Not exact matches
The kinetic energy of the in the the molecules at the top of the box and the molecules at the bottom of the box are different, in the additive fashion of kinetic energy plus potential energy equals a constant total energy.
Over a sufficiently long period of time, it follows from the equipartition theorem and other principles of statistical mechanics that every molecule in a gas will have the same average kinetic energy, the same average potential energy, and the same total energy, as any other molecule.
For Velasco et al.'s purposes, the state of a molecule is totally defined by its location and momentum, and the state of an ensemble of molecules is the combination of the individual molecules» states: for an ideal - gas ensemble consisting of N monatomic molecules, each of which is characterized by x, y, and z components both of position and of momentum, the ensemble's state can be represented by a point in 6N space, in which a surface I think of as a hyperparaboloid represents the states that exhibit a given total (potential + kinetic) energy.
The individual molecules in the upper atmosphere can indeed be very hot (high kinetic energy), but there are so few of them, their total temperature on any thermometer is very low.
This must drop the temperature of the molecules in question, since temperature is only a measure of the KINETIC ENERGY side of the TOTAL ENERGY equation.
If you read Velasco et al.'s Equation 8 for mean single - molecule kinetic energy K as a function of altitude z, you'll see that the expression for K is the product of a constant and (1 - mgz / E), where m is molecular mass, g is the acceleration of gravity, and E is total system energy.
Does he mean the individual the temperature of individual molecules (molecular kinetic energy), or does he mean the temperature of the total airmass?