In a gas kept at a constant temperature, all molecules move with the same speed. True or false?
False. In a gas kept at a constant temperature, all molecules do not move with the same speed. The speeds of molecules in a gas are distributed according to a probability distribution called the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. This distribution describes how the speeds of gas molecules are spread out over a range of values.
To understand this concept, we need to consider the kinetic theory of gases. According to this theory, the temperature of a gas is related to the average kinetic energy of its molecules. The kinetic energy depends on the mass of the molecules and their velocities.
In a gas, molecules have a range of velocities. Some molecules move faster, while others move slower. At a given temperature, the average kinetic energy of the gas remains constant. This means that some molecules have higher speeds to compensate for the slower-moving molecules, while still maintaining a constant temperature.
So, in summary, in a gas kept at a constant temperature, the molecules do not all move with the same speed. Instead, they have a range of speeds that follow a probability distribution known as the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.