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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Temperature and k.e. : Does a substance cool down if particles break apart?
« on: 11/11/2023 13:58:41 »
Imagine just one particle.
It falls apart into two but, thanks to momentum and energy conservation, the two parts must carry on along almost identical paths (and their CoG must follow exactly the same path).
So, each one has half the mass, but the same speed.
So it has half the energy.
(and the overall energy is the same- obviously).
The temperature of a gas is a measure of the average energy per particle.
And there are now twice as many particles with only half as much energy each and that, in principle, means that the temperature has fallen by half.
I don't think it's a realistic scenario, but it's an interesting bit of thermodynamics.
It falls apart into two but, thanks to momentum and energy conservation, the two parts must carry on along almost identical paths (and their CoG must follow exactly the same path).
So, each one has half the mass, but the same speed.
So it has half the energy.
(and the overall energy is the same- obviously).
The temperature of a gas is a measure of the average energy per particle.
And there are now twice as many particles with only half as much energy each and that, in principle, means that the temperature has fallen by half.
I don't think it's a realistic scenario, but it's an interesting bit of thermodynamics.
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