Question

State the law of equipartition of energy.

Answer 1

Law of equipartition of energy states that for a dynamical system in thermal equilibrium the total energy of the system is shared equally by all the degrees of freedom. The energy associated with each degree of freedom per molecule is $\frac{1}{2}kT$, where $k$ is the Boltzmann’s constant.

For example, for a monoatomic molecule each molecule has 3 degrees of freedom. According to kinetic theory of gases, the mean kinetic energy of a molecule is $\frac{3}{2}kT$.