PHYS 1010Q Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Thermodynamics, James Prescott Joule
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PHYS 1010Q Full Course Notes
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We have previously considered the microscopic interpretation of temperature as the average kinetic energy of the random motion of molecules. Two objects have the same temperature when they have the same average kinetic energy per molecule. Just as water in a pipe seeks a common level, the thermometer and its immediate surroundings reach a common temperature. The total microscopic energy of the molecules in an object is called its internal energy. It is not the ordered macroscopic kinetic or potential energy of the object as a whole, but the net energy of the random motion of all the molecules in the object. The molecules can have translational, vibrational, rotational and electronic energy. As the temperature of the object increases, the internal energy also increases. The internal energy, like the temperature, is a property of the system. The internal energy is sometimes called the thermal energy. Heat is the energy that ows between two objects because they are at different temperatures.
