physics 202, lecture 5 - web services at pccspot.pcc.edu/~dulrich/2013p202/2013p202ln05.pdf · the...

Kinetic Theory

Physics 202, Lecture 5

The kinetic hypothesis identifies heat energy with the random mechanicalenergy of molecules

The simplest thermal system is one with no molecular interaction at all —an ideal gas

The Maxwell-Boltzman distribution depicts the molecular speeds in anideal gas

Entropy measures the distribution of internal energy in a system

Fick’s law of diffusion and Brownian motion also follows from the kinetichypothesis

Statistical mechanics based on Newton’s laws is not as successful as itshould be

The root cause of this failure appears to be “frozen” degrees of freedom

These considerations paved the way to a new theory of quantum mechanics

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