Recent content by tomtraxler

Bear with me. I am a lawyer, not a physicist... I understand how the light clock demonstrates time dilation with special relativity. I think I understand length contraction. Here is my question: at relativistic speeds, why does length contraction not affect the distance traveled by the light...

i believe that the energy of compressing water goes to increasing the vibrational and rotational energies of the molecules and not their kinetic energy. isn't that why water has a higher heat capacity-- and takes longer to heat?

Excellent responses. Thanks for explaining it to me.

If temperature is defined as the average kinetic energy of molecules in a fluid (or gas), then why isn't the temperature of a fluid increased when that fluid is set in motion? Or is it? For example, if a stationary fluid is set into motion, do the molecules not have additional kinetic...

thanks for the answers. so when natural gas is liquified, it is normally liquified by compression and cooling or only cooling?

Everyone was great about answering my question relating temperature and compression of a gas. Here is ultimately the question I was trying to figure out: If a gas is compressed and work is done on the gas to compress it either by piston, centrifuge, or whatever, I understand that the work of...

WOW ! You people are incredible with this disccusion. Thanks! I am posting a related question as a new thread about liquefying a gas with pressure.

Thanks, Lurch. I had thought that temperature was the average amount of kinetic energy of the molecules irrespective of pressure or volume. It seems to be that if the statement "This is because the same amount of energy is now contained in a smaller space, so the amount of heat found in...

Thanks for all of the replies and so quick. I understand then that the extra kinetic energy and therefore the increase in temperature are a function of the work of compression (the piston (or walls) moving and imparting energy to the molecules) and not the function of pressure per se. Am...

I am not a physics person. I am a lawyer. So bear with me: I do not understand why the temperature of a gas or a liquid increases with pressure. I understand the Ideal Gas Law of PV=nRT, and I understand it mathematically, but I do not understand conceptually what is happening at the...