The mystery of Temperature?

Classical Mechanics Level 1

On which of the following quantities does the temperature depend upon?

Both of the above None of the above Kinetic energy of molecules Heat energy content

Rohit Gupta by Rohit Gupta , 34, India

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1 solution

Steven Chase
Feb 17, 2017

An iceberg has much more heat than a lit match, but the lit match has a much higher temperature. It is thus the average kinetic energy of a system which determines its temperature.

2 Helpful 1 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

Nice idea, comparison of the iceberg with a match stick. However, I am not sure if we should define heat as a content. Aren't we supposed to define heat as the energy in transit that is traveling from one object to another?

Also, we should emphasize another point here, this average kinetic energy of the system must be measured in its center of mass frame. Otherwise, if a ball is thrown, its temperature will rise, which actually doesn't.

Rohit Gupta - 4 years, 3 months ago

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I wasn't aware of that distinction, but upon further reading, yes. It sounds like heat refers to energy transfer, whereas "thermal energy" is the term I actually should have used. I agree with your second point as well. Measuring the kinetic energy with respect to the COM essentially filters out the translational part.

Steven Chase - 4 years, 3 months ago

Really confused about the iceberg analogy here, I thought the temperature was the average kinetic energy in a group of molecules; therefore the temperature of the match would be less but more in heat and the temperature of the iceberg would be greater since it has more molecules in general than a lit match. So how come there's more heat in the iceberg and more temperature in the match?

Virento Voshe - 3 years, 4 months ago

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The heat is the total amount of energy, and the temperature is proportional to the average molecular energy. The lit match has a relatively tiny number of molecules at a very high energy each, and the iceberg has a huge number of molecules at a relatively low energy per molecule. Thus, the iceberg has a lower temperature, but more heat.

Steven Chase - 3 years, 4 months ago

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Yan Xue - 1 year, 1 month ago

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