Kinetic energy -- plot molecule frequency vs temperature

[Niki]

hi

I have been given an assignment at school to look at various ways heat is transferred through liquids. I'm interested in looking more into the kinetic energy of molecules and how their vibration causes heat, I would like to know if there is a device I could use to record the frequency of molecules in a glass of water, so I could plot molecule frequency vs temperature?

Thanks

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

 

[andrevdh]

Maybe you can connect masspieces together with springs
and investigate the propagation of their oscillations through
the system? That will simulate the transmission of heat through
a solid and not a liquid though.

 

[CWatters]

I'm interested in looking more into the kinetic energy of molecules and how their vibration causes heat,

The vibration is heat not the cause of heat.

If I remember correctly the average velocity of a molecule of water is in the order of 100's of meter per second.

 

[haruspex]

frequency of molecules in a glass of water, so I could plot molecule frequency vs temperature?

Not sure what you mean by frequency here. Do you mean the proportion of molecules within a given energy band, or the speeds of the molecules?
You can get an indication of the speeds of the molecules by observing how fast a dye diffuses through the water. But quantifying this is quite advanced physics. See Brownian motion. You could certainly plot diffusion rate against temperature.
To get an idea of the distribution of speeds, maybe you could measure how well a low-power but finely tuned microwave is blocked by the water. The band of wavelengths blocked widens as the temperature rises because of the Doppler effect. Again, this sounds much too advanced for your purposes.