The Relation of Heat to Kinetic Theory of Matter Essay

The Relation of Heat to Kinetic Theory of Matter - Essay Example It means that movement of molecules or atoms becomes more when there is more heat. Molecules or atoms have energy preserved in them. They have potential energy as well as kinetic energy and these energies together form thermal energy. Thermal energy moves from an object having high temperature to an object having low temperature and with this movement (Maxwell, 1871), the movement of molecules or atoms also gets faster. The object having high temperature will have fast moving molecules or atoms. Therefore, it is quite clear that the study of heat is related to the kinetic theory of matter. 2. What is temperature? Heat is a process in which, thermal energy shifts from an object of high temperature to an object of low temperature. Heat is not pre-located in matter. It is created and can be noticed as shifting of thermal energy between objects based on temperature difference between the objects. There can be many examples of heat. When we touch a hot surface, the thermal energy shifts f rom the hot surface to our hand due to which, we feel heat as there is a temperature difference between the hot surface and our hand, which on touching shifts. In this way, we can say that the temperature is the measure of heat energy. With the help of a temperature scale we can estimate the degree of hotness or coldness of the surrounding atmosphere or any object. 3. What is the relationship between heat and temperature? While heat is a form of energy that can be converted to any other form, temperature is only an effect caused by the heat. However, both the quantities heat and temperature are directly proportional to each other. If one quantity rises the other also varies directly, if one lowers the other quantity lowers too. The more the amount of heat the more will be kinetic energy of molecules while temperature is the measure of the degree of motion of particles in a system. 4. What are the various properties of a substance that determine its heat capacity? The most important factor that determines the heat capacity of a substance is the energy state of the molecules of the substance that is the direct measure of the heat capacity of a substance. The difference of the heat capacities of the two substances is due to the difference in the molecular energy state of the two substances (Hagg, 2011). The other factors that determine the heat capacity of the material are the pressure, composition of the substance and the temperature. Pressure makes the molecules to be close to each other that make the molecules to collide in a more repetitively that increase the average kinetic energy of the molecules and changes the energy state of the material. Under pressure the three state of the matter behave differently (Belzer, 2011). Gasses are most influences by the pressure and temperature while solids gave little impact when they are under pressure as the molecules are close enough in the solids. As the temperature of the substance is raised the bond between the mole cules weakens and the matter changes its state, as solids when heated to a certain temperature melts to a liquid form and liquids change to gaseous form when heated to a certain temperature. Composition of the material can change its heat capacity by altering the energy states of the material. 5. What are the var