Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

[Phys-l] thermal energy



On 12/04/2008 07:19 AM, Rick Tarara wrote:
The thermal energy (heat) is roughly the
measure of the total kinetic energy of all the molecules.

I wouldn't say that, not even "roughly".

1) It would be better to add the word "random". A cold,
fast-moving bullet has lots of kinetic energy that must
not be counted as part of the thermal energy.

2) It would be better to remove the word "kinetic". In a
solid, very nearly half of the thermal energy is kinetic
energy and the other half is potential energy. Hint:
treat thermal phonons as harmonic oscillators.

In this regard, solids differ from ideal gases. But there
is more to physics than ideal gases.

This is a very common mistake, but it's still a mistake.