What is the relationship between the average speed and RMS speed of gas molecules?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the relationship between the average speed and RMS speed of gas molecules?
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
For an ideal gas, the RMS speed is always greater than the average speed due to the nature of the distribution of molecular speeds.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: What is the relationship between the average speed and RMS speed of gas molecules?
Solution: For an ideal gas, the RMS speed is always greater than the average speed due to the nature of the distribution of molecular speeds.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what average speed means. It is the total speed of all gas molecules divided by the number of molecules.
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 faster molecules.
Step 3: Recognize that gas molecules have a range of speeds, not all moving at the same speed.
Step 4: Realize that because RMS speed gives more importance to higher speeds, it will always be greater than the average speed.
Step 5: Conclude that for an ideal gas, the RMS speed is always greater than the average speed due to how speeds are distributed.
