What is the relationship between the average speed and RMS speed of a gas?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the relationship between the average speed and RMS speed of a gas?
RMS speed is always greater than average speed
RMS speed is always less than average speed
RMS speed equals average speed
RMS speed is independent of average speed
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the relationship between the average speed and RMS speed of a gas?
Step 1: Understand what average speed means. It is the total distance traveled by gas particles divided by the number of particles.
Step 2: Understand what RMS speed means. RMS stands for Root Mean Square, which is a way to calculate the average speed that gives more weight to higher speeds.
Step 3: Realize that in the RMS calculation, each speed is squared before averaging. This means that faster particles contribute more to the RMS speed.
Step 4: Compare the two speeds. Since the RMS speed takes into account the squared values, it will always be greater than the average speed for an ideal gas.
Step 5: Conclude that the relationship is that RMS speed is always greater than average speed for an ideal gas.
