Temperature and the Kinetic Theory of Gases Chapter 16 Temperature and the Kinetic Theory of Gases

Overview of Thermodynamics Extends the ideas of temperature and internal energy Concerned with concepts of energy transfers between a system and its environment And the resulting variations in temperature or changes in state Explains the bulk properties of matter and the correlation between them and the mechanics of atoms and molecules

Temperature We associate the concept of temperature with how hot or cold an objects feels Our senses provide us with a qualitative indication of temperature Our senses are unreliable for this purpose We need a reliable and reproducible way for establishing the relative hotness or coldness of objects that is related solely to the temperature of the object Thermometers are used for these measurements

Thermal Contact Two objects are in thermal contact with each other if energy can be exchanged between them The exchanges can be in the form of heat or electromagnetic radiation The energy is exchanged due to a temperature difference

Thermal Equilibrium Thermal equilibrium is a situation in which two object would not exchange energy by heat or electromagnetic radiation if they were placed in thermal contact The thermal contact does not have to also be physical contact

Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics If objects A and B are separately in thermal equilibrium with a third object C, then A and B are in thermal equilibrium with each other Let object C be the thermometer Since they are in thermal equilibrium with each other, there is no energy exchanged among them

Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics, Example Object C (thermometer) is placed in contact with A until it they achieve thermal equilibrium The reading on C is recorded Object C is then placed in contact with object B until they achieve thermal equilibrium The reading on C is recorded again If the two readings are the same, A and B are also in thermal equilibrium

Temperature Temperature can be thought of as the property that determines whether an object is in thermal equilibrium with other objects Two objects in thermal equilibrium with each other are at the same temperature If two objects have different temperatures, they are not in thermal equilibrium with each other

Thermometers A thermometer is a device that is used to measure the temperature of a system Thermometers are based on the principle that some physical property of a system changes as the system’s temperature changes

Thermometers, cont The properties include The volume of a liquid The length of a solid The pressure of a gas at a constant volume The volume of a gas at a constant pressure The electric resistance of a conductor The color of an object A temperature scale can be established on the basis of any of these physical properties

Thermometer, Liquid in Glass A common type of thermometer is a liquid-in-glass The material in the capillary tube expands as it is heated The liquid is usually mercury or alcohol

Calibrating a Thermometer A thermometer can be calibrated by placing it in contact with some environments that remain at constant temperature Common systems involve water A mixture of ice and water at atmospheric pressure Called the ice point or freezing point of water A mixture of water and steam in equilibrium Called the steam point or boiling point of water

Celsius Scale The ice point of water is defined to be 0oC The steam point of water is defined to be 100oC The length of the column between these two points is divided into 100 equal segments, called degrees

Problems with Liquid-in-Glass Thermometers An alcohol thermometer and a mercury thermometer may agree only at the calibration points The discrepancies between thermometers are especially large when the temperatures being measured are far from the calibration points

Gas Thermometer The gas thermometer offers a way to define temperature Also directly relates temperature to internal energy Temperature readings are nearly independent of the substance used in the thermometer

Constant Volume Gas Thermometer The physical change exploited is the variation of pressure of a fixed volume gas as its temperature changes The volume of the gas is kept constant by raising or lowering the reservoir B to keep the mercury level at A constant

Constant Volume Gas Thermometer, cont The thermometer is calibrated by using a ice water bath and a steam water bath The pressures of the mercury under each situation are recorded The volume is kept constant by adjusting A The information is plotted

Constant Volume Gas Thermometer, final To find the temperature of a substance, the gas flask is placed in thermal contact with the substance The pressure is found on the graph The temperature is read from the graph

Absolute Zero The thermometer readings are virtually independent of the gas used If the lines for various gases are extended, the pressure is always zero when the temperature is –273.15o C This temperature is called absolute zero

Absolute Temperature Scale Absolute zero is used as the basis of the absolute temperature scale The size of the degree on the absolute scale is the same as the size of the degree on the Celsius scale To convert: TC = T – 273.15 TC is the temperature in Celsius T is the Kelvin (absolute) temperature

Absolute Temperature Scale, 2 The absolute temperature scale is now based on two new fixed points Adopted in 1954 by the International Committee on Weights and Measures One point is absolute zero The other point is the triple point of water This is the combination of temperature and pressure where ice, water, and steam can all coexist

Absolute Temperature Scale, 3 The triple point of water occurs at 0.01o C and 4.58 mm of mercury This temperature was set to be 273.16 on the absolute temperature scale This made the old absolute scale agree closely with the new one The unit of the absolute scale is the kelvin

Absolute Temperature Scale, 4 The absolute scale is also called the Kelvin scale Named for William Thomson, Lord Kelvin The triple point temperature is 273.16 K No degree symbol is used with kelvins The kelvin is defined as 1/273.16 of the temperature of the triple point of water

Some Examples of Absolute Temperatures This figure gives some absolute temperatures at which various physical processes occur The scale is logarithmic The temperature of absolute cannot be achieved Experiments have come close

Energy at Absolute Zero According to classical physics, the kinetic energy of the gas molecules would become zero at absolute zero The molecular motion would cease Therefore, the molecules would settle out on the bottom of the container Quantum theory modifies this and shows some residual energy would remain This energy is called the zero-point energy

Fahrenheit Scale A common scale in everyday use in the US Named for Daniel Fahrenheit Temperature of the ice point is 32oF Temperature of the steam point is 212oF There are 180 divisions (degrees) between the two reference points

Comparison of Scales Celsius and Kelvin have the same size degrees, but different starting points TC = T – 273.15 Celsius and Fahrenheit have difference sized degrees and different starting points

Comparison of Scales, cont To compare changes in temperature Ice point temperatures 0oC = 273.15 K = 32oF steam point temperatures 100oC = 373.15 K = 212oF

Thermal Expansion Thermal expansion is the increase in the size of an object with an increase in its temperature Thermal expansion is a consequence of the change in the average separation between the atoms in an object If the expansion is small relative to the original dimensions of the object, the change in any dimension is, to a good approximation, proportional to the first power of the change in temperature

Thermal Expansion, example As the washer is heated, all the dimensions will increase A cavity in a piece of material expands in the same way as if the cavity were filled with the material The expansion is exaggerated in this figure

Linear Expansion Assume an object has an initial length L That length increases by DL as the temperature changes by DT The change in length can be found by DL = a Li DT a is the average coefficient of linear expansion

Linear Expansion, cont This equation can also be written in terms of the initial and final conditions of the object: Lf – Li = a Li(Tf – Ti) The coefficient of linear expansion has units of (oC)-1

Linear Expansion, final Some materials expand along one dimension, but contract along another as the temperature increases Since the linear dimensions change, it follows that the surface area and volume also change with a change in temperature

Thermal Expansion

Volume Expansion The change in volume is proportional to the original volume and to the change in temperature DV = Vi b DT b is the average coefficient of volume expansion For a solid, b = 3 a This assumes the material is isotropic, the same in all directions For a liquid or gas, b is given in the table

Area Expansion The change in area is proportional to the original area and to the change in temperature DA = Ai g DT g is the average coefficient of area expansion g = 2 a

Thermal Expansion, Example In many situations, joints are used to allow room for thermal expansion The long, vertical joint is filled with a soft material that allows the wall to expand and contract as the temperature of the bricks changes

Bimetallic Strip Each substance has its own characteristic average coefficient of expansion This can be made use of in the device shown, called a bimetallic strip It can be used in a thermostat

Water’s Unusual Behavior As the temperature increases from 0o C to 4o C, water contracts Its density increases Above 4o C, water expands with increasing temperature Its density decreases The maximum density of water (1 000 kg/m3) occurs at 4oC

Gas: Equation of State It is useful to know how the volume, pressure and temperature of the gas of mass m are related The equation that interrelates these quantities is called the equation of state These are generally quite complicated If the gas is maintained at a low pressure, the equation of state becomes much easier This type of a low density gas is commonly referred to as an ideal gas

Ideal Gas – Details A collection of atoms or molecules that Move randomly Exert no long-range forces on one another Are so small that they occupy a negligible fraction of the volume of their container

The Mole The amount of gas in a given volume is conveniently expressed in terms of the number of moles One mole of any substance is that amount of the substance that contains Avogadro’s number of molecules Avogadro’s number, NA = 6.022 x 1023

Moles, cont The number of moles can be determined from the mass of the substance: n = m / M M is the molar mass of the substance Commonly expressed in g/mole m is the mass of the sample n is the number of moles

Gas Laws When a gas is kept at a constant temperature, its pressure is inversely proportional to its volume (Boyle’s Law) When a gas is kept at a constant pressure, the volume is directly proportional to the temperature (Charles’ Laws) When the volume of the gas is kept constant, the pressure is directly proportional to the temperature (Guy-Lussac’s Law)

Ideal Gas Law The equation of state for an ideal gas combines and summarizes the other gas laws PV = n R T This is known as the ideal gas law R is a constant, called the Universal Gas Constant R = 8.314 J/ mol K = 0.08214 L atm/mol K From this, you can determine that 1 mole of any gas at atmospheric pressure and at 0o C is 22.4 L

Ideal Gas Law, cont The ideal gas law is often expressed in terms of the total number of molecules, N, present in the sample P V = n R T = (N / NA) R T = N kB T kB is Boltzmann’s constant kB = 1.38 x 10-23 J / K

Ludwid Boltzmann 1844 – 1906 Contributions to Kinetic theory of gases Electromagnetism Thermodynamics Work in kinetic theory led to the branch of physics called statistical mechanics

Kinetic Theory of Gases Uses a structural model based on the ideal gas model Combines the structural model and its predictions Pressure and temperature of an ideal gas are interpreted in terms of microscopic variables

Structural Model Assumptions The number of molecules in the gas is large, and the average separation between them is large compared with their dimensions The molecules occupy a negligible volume within the container This is consistent with the macroscopic model where we assumed the molecules were point-like

Structural Model Assumptions, 2 The molecules obey Newton’s laws of motion, but as a whole their motion is isotropic Any molecule can move in any direction with any speed Meaning of isotropic

Structural Model Assumptions, 3 The molecules interact only by short-range forces during elastic collisions This is consistent with the ideal gas model, in which the molecules exert no long-range forces on each other The molecules make elastic collisions with the walls The gas under consideration is a pure substance All molecules are identical

Ideal Gas Notes An ideal gas is often pictured as consisting of single atoms However, the behavior of molecular gases approximate that of ideal gases quite well Molecular rotations and vibrations have no effect, on average, on the motions considered

Pressure and Kinetic Energy Assume a container is a cube Edges are length d Look at the motion of the molecule in terms of its velocity components Look at its momentum and the average force

Pressure and Kinetic Energy, 2 Assume perfectly elastic collisions with the walls of the container The relationship between the pressure and the molecular kinetic energy comes from momentum and Newton’s Laws

Pressure and Kinetic Energy, 3 The relationship is This tells us that pressure is proportional to the number of molecules per unit volume (N/V) and to the average translational kinetic energy of the molecules

Pressure and Kinetic Energy, final This equation also relates the macroscopic quantity of pressure with a microscopic quantity of the average value of the molecular translational kinetic energy One way to increase the pressure is to increase the number of molecules per unit volume The pressure can also be increased by increasing the speed (kinetic energy) of the molecules

A Molecular Interpretation of Temperature We can take the pressure as it relates to the kinetic energy and compare it to the pressure from the equation of state for an idea gas Therefore, the temperature is a direct measure of the average translational molecular kinetic energy

A Microscopic Description of Temperature, cont Simplifying the equation relating temperature and kinetic energy gives This can be applied to each direction, with similar expressions for vy and vz

A Microscopic Description of Temperature, final Each translational degree of freedom contributes an equal amount to the energy of the gas In general, a degree of freedom refers to an independent means by which a molecule can possess energy A generalization of this result is called the theorem of equipartition of energy

Theorem of Equipartition of Energy The theorem states that the energy of a system in thermal equilibrium is equally divided among all degrees of freedom Each degree of freedom contributes ½ kBT per molecule to the energy of the system

Total Kinetic Energy The total translational kinetic energy is just N times the kinetic energy of each molecule This tells us that the total translational kinetic energy of a system of molecules is proportional to the absolute temperature of the system

Monatomic Gas For a monatomic gas, translational kinetic energy is the only type of energy the particles of the gas can have Therefore, the total energy is the internal energy: For polyatomic molecules, additional forms of energy storage are available, but the proportionality between Eint and T remains

Root Mean Square Speed The root mean square (rms) speed is the square root of the average of the squares of the speeds Square, average, take the square root Solving for vrms we find M is the molar mass in kg/mole

Some Example vrms Values At a given temperature, lighter molecules move faster, on the average, than heavier molecules

Distribution of Molecular Speeds The observed speed distribution of gas molecules in thermal equilibrium is shown NV is called the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution function

Distribution Function The fundamental expression that describes the distribution of speeds in N gas molecules is mo is the mass of a gas molecule, kB is Boltzmann’s constant and T is the absolute temperature

Average and Most Probable Speeds The average speed is somewhat lower than the rms speed The most probable speed, vmp is the speed at which the distribution curve reaches a peak

Speed Distribution The peak shifts to the right as T increases This shows that the average speed increases with increasing temperature The width of the curve increases with temperature The asymmetric shape occurs because the lowest possible speed is 0 and the upper classical limit is infinity

Speed Distribution, final The distribution of molecular speeds depends both on the mass and on temperature The speed distribution for liquids is similar to that of gasses

Evaporation Some molecules in the liquid are more energetic than others Some of the faster moving molecules penetrate the surface and leave the liquid This occurs even before the boiling point is reached The molecules that escape are those that have enough energy to overcome the attractive forces of the molecules in the liquid phase The molecules left behind have lower kinetic energies Therefore, evaporation is a cooling process

Atmosphere For such a huge volume of gas as the atmosphere, the assumption of a uniform temperature throughout the gas is not valid There are variations in temperature Over the surface of the Earth At different heights in the atmosphere

Temperature and Height At each location, there is a decrease in temperature with an increase in height As the height increases, the pressure decreases The air parcel does work on its surroundings and its energy decreases The decrease in energy is manifested as a decrease in temperature

Lapse Rate The atmospheric lapse rate is the decrease in temperature with height The lapse rate is similar at various locations across the surface of the earth The average global lapse rate is about –6.5o C / km This is for the area of the atmosphere called the troposphere

Layers of the Atmosphere Troposphere The lower part of the atmosphere Where weather occurs and airplanes fly Tropopause The imaginary boundary between the troposphere and the next layer Stratosphere Layer above the tropopause Temperature remains relatively constant with height