Kinetic pressure
Learning objectives
- To illustrate the microscopic behaviour of an ideal gas.
- To introduce the idea of pressure in kinetic molecular terms.
The kinetic molecular theory of Maxwell and Boltzmann proposes that the macroscopic properties of an ideal gas derive from the fact that it is composed of a large number of colliding point particles that are in rapid motion.
The particles do not interact with one another except in elastic collisions. The piston receives from each such collision a certain amount of momentum. The macroscopic effect of these collisions is pressure.
Click and drag the piston horizontally to modify the volume,
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