Re: Thermal Energy - thermalization of rotational energy

[Bob Sciamanda <trebor@VELOCITY.NET>]

Jim Green wrote:
> Now finally would someone please tell me what is meant
> by "thermal energy" and "thermalize

I would venture that that energy of a system be considered to have been
thermalized when its distribution over all possible modes/levels is strictly
determined by the temperature of the system (eg: for quadratic functions of
x/p, through the [quantum mechanically modified] equipartition principle).
Then thermal energy is that energy which has been thermalized.

Bob Sciamanda (W3NLV)
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (em)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor