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Physics Tutorial 13.8 - Molar Specific Heats and Degrees of Freedom

There are 4 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Molar Specific Heats and Degrees of Freedom. The tutorial starts with an introduction to Molar Specific Heats and Degrees of Freedom and is then followed with a list of the separate lessons, the tutorial is designed to be read in order but you can skip to a specific lesson or return to recover a specific physics lesson as required to build your physics knowledge of Molar Specific Heats and Degrees of Freedom. you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.

In this Physics tutorial, you will learn:

  • What is/are the factor(s) affecting the internal energy of an ideal gas?
  • What is molar specific heat at constant volume?
  • How to calculate the molar specific heat at constant volume for an ideal monoatomic gas?
  • What about the molar specific heat at constant volume if the gas is diatomic or polyatomic?
  • The same for the molar specific heat at constant pressure.
  • How do these two molar specific heats relate to each other?
  • What are degrees of freedom and how they are related to the energy absorbed by ideal gas?
  • How to find the number of degrees of freedom in various ideal gases?

Introduction

Do you think all gases have the same ability to absorb or release heat energy? Why?

Do you know any other kind of motion besides the translational one described in the previous tutorial? Could you mention one of them?

What happens with the internal energy of a gas if it absorbs / releases heat from / to the surroundings?

We will explain in this tutorial how to answer correctly to the above questions not by mere intuition, rather, based on a scientific approach.

Please select a specific "Molar Specific Heats and Degrees of Freedom" lesson from the table below, review the video tutorial, print the revision notes or use the practice question to improve your knowledge of this physics topic.

Thermodynamics Learning Material
Tutorial IDPhysics Tutorial TitleTutorialVideo
Tutorial
Revision
Notes
Revision
Questions
13.8Molar Specific Heats and Degrees of Freedom
Lesson IDPhysics Lesson TitleLessonVideo
Lesson
13.8.1Internal Energy
13.8.2Molar Specific Heat at Constant Volume
13.8.3Molar Specific Heat at Constant Pressure
13.8.4Degrees of Freedom and Molar Specific Heats

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