From owner-biophysics@net.bio.net Wed Apr 20 23:00:00 1994 Path: biosci!daresbury!trane.uninett.no!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!umn.edu!mayonews.mayo.edu!fermat.mayo.edu!silva From: silva@yang.mayo.edu (Norberto Silva) Newsgroups: bionet.biophysics Subject: Re: Discussion: What is "temperature"? Date: 21 Apr 1994 04:17:56 GMT Organization: Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN Lines: 29 Distribution: world Message-ID: References: <19APR199421362268@jetson.uh.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: yang.mayo.edu In-reply-to: schieber@jetson.uh.edu's message of 19 Apr 1994 21:36 CDT I think the best way to think of temperature, which will carry you far, is to think of temperature as an "average measure" of the kinetic energy (energy of motion) of an object. My justification for this picture is the equipartition theorem which states that the average kinetic energy per molecule is proportional to the system temperature times the Boltzman constant (1.3805 * 10^(-23) Joules/Kelvin). I will not deny that there are special cases which one should keep in mind when considering this analogy; however, in my experience the above conception of temperature will cover a lot of ground. -----------------------------------------------------*---------------- Norberto D. Silva, Jr. ### ,_`o Mayo Clinic, Guggenheim 14 ##### _-\_<, 200 First St. SW | (*)/'(*) Rochester, MN 55905 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FAX: (507) 284-9349 e-mail: silva@mayo.edu phone: (507) 284-5794 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -----------------------------------------------------*---------------- Norberto D. Silva, Jr. ### ,_`o Mayo Clinic, Guggenheim 14 ##### _-\_<, 200 First St. SW | (*)/'(*) Rochester, MN 55905 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FAX: (507) 284-9349 e-mail: silva@mayo.edu phone: (507) 284-5794 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- .