Sunday, August 30, 2015

What is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the individual particles in an object?

Temperature is a measure of average kinetic energy of particles in an object. The hotter the substance, higher is the average kinetic energy of its constituent particles. When we heat a substance, the particles that constitute the substance gain some energy and begin to move faster. This increase in kinetic energy causes them to travel more distance in the same amount of time (as compared to their motion prior to heating the substance). This causes more collisions between the particles and between the particles and the container walls (in case of fluids). These collisions raise the temperature of the substance as a whole, and thus the temperature can be measured as a measure of average kinetic energy of the particles. 


Note that not all the particles move in the same direction and with kinetic energy. Temperature is a measure of average kinetic energy of all the particles and not that of each individual particle.


Hope this helps. 

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