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]

Re: [Phys-l] Why ants survive in a micro wave oven. [Obviously "off list"!]

Interesting - this would have been a 'school boy error' at one time, but since they've developed laser techniques to lower the energy of individual molecules I think I have seen references to the temperature of the molecule (perhaps by analogy, but that's how these things can start! We have molecules not that get literally excited, when I guess the first molecules (to be recognised as excited) only got 'excited' metaphorically?).

Of course otherwise we have the interesting issue of how many molecules can collectively have a temperature.

A molecule....no

A mole...certainly

What about a billion? I guess so.

A million? Perhaps.

A thousand. Possibly.

A hundred...



Keith


Can't one determine the vibrational, rotational modes of motion and
relate these to a temperature of sorts?
.
At 7:25 AM -0800 2/9/12, John Mallinckrodt wrote:
Well... *A* water molecule really can't "get hot."

chuck britton wrote:

But - water molecules are even smaller than ants - and water
molecules get hot.

John Mallinckrodt
Cal Poly Pomona
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l

_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


--

Dr. Keith S. Taber

Editor: Chemistry Education Research and Practice
(Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry)
http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/rp/about.asp

Book Reviews Editor: Studies in Science Education
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/03057267.asp


Senior Lecturer in Science Education
Science Education Centre
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
184 Hills Road
Cambridge CB2 8PQ
United Kingdom
http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/staff/taber.html
https://camtools.cam.ac.uk/access/wiki/site/~kst24/index.html