WordNet
n. (physics) a theory that gases consist of small particles in random motion [syn: kinetic theory]
Wikipedia
The kinetic theory describes a gas as a large number of submicroscopic particles ( atoms or molecules), all of which are in constant rapid motion that has randomness arising from their many collisions with each other and with the walls of the container.
Kinetic theory explains macroscopic properties of gases, such as pressure, temperature, viscosity, thermal conductivity, and volume, by considering their molecular composition and motion. The theory posits that gas pressure is due to the impacts, on the walls of a container, of molecules or atoms moving at different velocities.
Kinetic theory defines temperature in its own way, not identical with the thermodynamic definition.
Under a microscope, the molecules making up a liquid are too small to be visible, but the jittery motion of pollen grains or dust particles can be seen. Known as Brownian motion, it results directly from collisions between the grains or particles and liquid molecules. As analyzed by Albert Einstein in 1905, this experimental evidence for kinetic theory is generally seen as having confirmed the concrete material existence of atoms and molecules.
Usage examples of "kinetic theory of gases".
Boyle's law and the rest had to be discovered before the kinetic theory of gases became possible.
If you really wanted to study the kinetic theory of gases, why did you reconstruct so painstakingly the eolopile—.
If you really wanted to study the kinetic theory of gases, why did you reconstruct so painstakingly the eolopile-a little spouted sphere that, when heated, spins, spewing steam-a device first built by Heron in the days of the Gnostics to assist the speaking statues and other wonders of the Egyptian priests?
The story is-if you want tradition-that Hari Seldon devised psychohistory by modeling it upon the kinetic theory of gases.
The story isif you want traditionthat Hari Seldon devised psychohistory by modeling it upon the kinetic theory of gases.
The story is--if you want tradition-that Hari Seldon devised psychohistory by modeling it upon the kinetic theory of gases.
He showered me with terminology from physics, mathematics, thermodynamics and the kinetic theory of gases, so that later on, when I was grown up, I often wondered why this or that term seemed familiar to me.
I modeled my concept of psychohistory on the kinetic theory of gases, which I had been beat over the head with in my physical chemistry classes.