Biology 2601A/B Lecture Notes - Temperature Coefficient, Wind Chill, Molecular Mass
4 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
Human beings are one of the few organisms that inhabit environments that encompass both temperature extremes. Accomplishing a feat most organisms cannot, they are able to do this through the production of suitable shelters, tools, cultures, etc. Other life forms usually preside in one extreme environment, like penguins in the antarctic and baobab trees in the african savannah, and find more primitive solutions to surviving under such conditions. Temperature is defined as the measure of the speed or intensity of the incessant random motions that all the atoms and molecules of any substance undergo on an atomic/molecular scale. More exactly, the temperature of a substance is proportional to the product of the mean-square-speed of the random molecular motions and the molecular mass. While temperature is the intensity of motion by the atoms vibrating in an object, heat can be defined as the amount of energy present in an object.
