" . . .For example, in an ideal gas, all of the thermal energy is in the
form of kinetic energy. . . ."
I understand the misconception you are quite rightly trying to address.
However, it does depend on your model of the ideal gas. Certainly it is
valid for the monatomic ideal gas. Earlier you explicitly consider the
case of a diatomic ideal gas. If such a gas is modeled as a rigid rotor
than your comment is spot on; however if it is modeled by a non-rigid
rotor (spring connecting the two "atoms") then even in the ideal gas
model there are potential energy degrees of freedom.
When I cover ideal gas models and their connection to values for
specific heat I definitely use the non-rigid rotor as an example. In
part to proffer up a counter-example to the misconception you mention.
________________________
Joel Rauber
Department of Physics - SDSU
Joel.Rauber@sdstate.edu
605-688-4293
| -----Original Message-----
| From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
| [mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf
| Of John Denker
| Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 10:20 PM
| To: PHYS-L Maillist
| Subject: [Phys-l] gas laws
|
| [apologies to those who have already received this via the
| chemistry list]
|
| Hi --
|
| I collected some thoughts on "gas laws" into this document:
| http://www.av8n.com/physics/gas-laws.htm
|
| I tried to make it accessible to a fairly wide audience.
| I had it vetted by a couple of 14-year-olds who have never
| taken HS chemistry or physics; they didn't follow every
| detail but they got the main points.
|
| It's about 5000 words, with 12 illustrations.
|
| ===========
|
| Here's an interesting exercise: Choose the best completion:
| Other things being equal, for an ideal gas, ...
| __
| |__| (A) ... when the temperature goes up, the volume goes up,
| and when the temperature goes down, the volume
| goes down.
| __
| |__| (B) ... when the temperature goes up, the volume
| goes down,
| and vice versa.
|
| For an analysis, see
| http://www.av8n.com/physics/gas-laws.htm#sec-compare
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