The discussion revolves around the conversion of electronvolts (eV) to Kelvin (K) and the implications of this conversion in the context of many-particle systems. Participants explore the relationship between energy and temperature, particularly in relation to statistical mechanics and the Boltzmann distribution.
Participants express varying interpretations of the relationship between energy and temperature, particularly regarding the types of energy present in different systems. There is no consensus on the implications of these interpretations.
Some assumptions about the definitions of temperature and energy types are not fully explored, and the discussion does not resolve the complexities of energy distribution in various systems.
Shyan said:Temperature is soemthing which can be defined for only many particle systems, you need to have at least a few hundread particles, if not more!
Then, the energy equivalent to a particular temperature is interpreted as the average energy of those particles. So when you say 7eV corresponds to 81121 K, it means that in a many particle system with such a temperature, the average energy of particles is 7eV. Some particles have much more energy and some much less.
Yeah, Boltzmann distribution tells you what fraction of the particles have a particular energy.Questions554 said:Ah cool, does this have to do with the mean of a Boltzmann distribution? This would mean 7eV being a vibrational energy?
Shyan said:Yeah, Boltzmann distribution tells you what fraction of the particles have a particular energy.
But all the energy doesn't have to be vibrational. It depends on the system. You may have a monatomic gas which can only have translational degrees of freedom. Or you may have something like a water molecule which can rotate around several axis and also has some vibrational degrees of freedom too. Of course the translational degrees of freedom are still present.