B Can High Temperature Exist in Intense Gravitational Fields?

AI Thread Summary
Heat is defined as thermal energy in transit and is proportional to the vibration of atoms, but high total energy in an atom does not equate to high temperature. Temperature is determined by the average kinetic energy of particles, not the total energy, which can include potential energy. In intense gravitational fields, atomic vibrations may be restricted, but this does not imply a high temperature like that of stars. The self-gravitational forces within an atom are negligible compared to electric and strong nuclear forces. Therefore, an object can possess significant energy without having a high temperature if that energy is primarily potential rather than kinetic.
shivakumar
Messages
12
Reaction score
6
Sir, heat is proportional to the vibration of atoms. If the vibration of atom is restricted to large extent due to intense gravitational field but has high quantity of total energy in the atom then does it mean it has high tempearture like the stars?
 
Science news on Phys.org
Heat refers, so to speak, to thermal energy in transit. You can talk about the total energy inside a system, but it would be meaningless to ask how much heat is in a system. One can only discuss how much heat entered or left a system.
 
  • Like
Likes Chestermiller
shivakumar said:
heat is proportional to the vibration of atoms.
No. See what @Lord Jestocost said in Post #1 about heat.

Also, 'vibrations' are not necessary. E.g. the particles in an ideal gas doe not vibrate. They move in random straight lines (bouncing off the container walls and each other).

shivakumar said:
If the vibration of atom is restricted to large extent due to intense gravitational field
The self-gravitational forces inside an atom (if that is what you mean) are incredibly small - totally negligible compared to the electric forces and the strong nuclear forces.

shivakumar said:
but has high quantity of total energy in the atom then does it mean it has high tempearture like the stars?
No.

High energy does not mean high temperature. The temperature of a system of particles depends on the average kinetic energy (of random motion) of the particles.

You can have have a cold object that contains a lot of energy - if the energy is mainly potential (not kinetic).
 
I need to calculate the amount of water condensed from a DX cooling coil per hour given the size of the expansion coil (the total condensing surface area), the incoming air temperature, the amount of air flow from the fan, the BTU capacity of the compressor and the incoming air humidity. There are lots of condenser calculators around but they all need the air flow and incoming and outgoing humidity and then give a total volume of condensed water but I need more than that. The size of the...
Thread 'Why work is PdV and not (P+dP)dV in an isothermal process?'
Let's say we have a cylinder of volume V1 with a frictionless movable piston and some gas trapped inside with pressure P1 and temperature T1. On top of the piston lay some small pebbles that add weight and essentially create the pressure P1. Also the system is inside a reservoir of water that keeps its temperature constant at T1. The system is in equilibrium at V1, P1, T1. Now let's say i put another very small pebble on top of the piston (0,00001kg) and after some seconds the system...
I was watching a Khan Academy video on entropy called: Reconciling thermodynamic and state definitions of entropy. So in the video it says: Let's say I have a container. And in that container, I have gas particles and they're bouncing around like gas particles tend to do, creating some pressure on the container of a certain volume. And let's say I have n particles. Now, each of these particles could be in x different states. Now, if each of them can be in x different states, how many total...
Back
Top