Which of the following statements about RMS speed is true?
Practice Questions
Q1
Which of the following statements about RMS speed is true?
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 molecular mass
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
Which of the following statements about RMS speed is true?
Step 1: Understand what RMS speed means. RMS stands for Root Mean Square, which is a way to calculate an average speed that gives more weight to higher speeds.
Step 2: Know that average speed is calculated by adding all speeds together and dividing by the number of speeds.
Step 3: Realize that in a gas, there are many particles moving at different speeds.
Step 4: Recognize that when calculating RMS speed, the higher speeds contribute more to the final value than lower speeds do.
Step 5: Conclude that because of this, the RMS speed will always be greater than the average speed for a group of speeds in a gas.
