Question

What does the kinetic theory of gases state?

Answer 1

1. The kinetic theory of gases is a straightforward thermodynamic model of gas dynamics.
2. The model describes a gas as a large number of identical submicroscopic particles (atoms or molecules) moving randomly and continuously.
3. At random elastic collisions, the particles smash with each other and with the container's enclosing walls.
4. The basic form of the model describes an ideal gas and ignores all additional particle interactions and attractive forces.
5. The macroscopic properties of gases, such as volume, pressure, and temperature, as well as transport properties like viscosity, thermal conductivity, and mass diffusivity, are explained by the kinetic theory of gases.
6. The first explicit application of statistical mechanics theories was the kinetic theory of gases.
7. As material bodies, the molecules are in constant random motion and follow Newton's equations of motion. The molecules move in straight lines until they collide with one another or the container's walls.
8. Collisions are fully elastic; when two molecules collide, the orientations and kinetic energies of the molecules change, but the total kinetic energy is conserved.
9. The average kinetic energy of the gas molecules is related to the absolute temperature. Individual molecules' velocities and kinetic energies will vary widely, and some will even have no velocity at any given time, hence the phrase "average" is critical. All molecular motion would stop if the temperature was reduced to absolute zero.