PlanetPhysics/Mean Translational Kinetic Energy

The mean translational kinetic energy is a result from the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and is given by

$$ K_{avg} = \frac{1}{2} m {v^2}_{rms} $$

A more useful form of this equation is in terms of temperature. Temperature is brought in through the root mean square speed derived in the kinetic thoery of gases

$$ v_{rms} = \sqrt{\frac{3RT}{M}} $$

where R is the gas constand

$$ R = 8.31 \, [ \frac{J}{mol * K} ] $$

and more to come ...