Caption: The ideal-gas Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution for velocity for 10**6 oxygen O_2 molecules for temperatures Celsius temperatures -100 C (red curve), 20 C (green curve), 600 C (blue curve): i.e., Kelvin temperatures 173.15 K, 293.15 K, 873.15 K. The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is a result in statistical mechanics.

Features:

1. Temperature in modern physics is energy parameter that controls the distribution of microscopic particles (i.e., atoms and molecules) among microscopic energy states (usually called energy levels).

2. The image illustrates the particular case of ideal-gas microscopic particles.

3. The horizontal axis is particle velocity in meters per second (m/s).

   Velocity is the conventional substitute for kinetic energy in the context of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.

4. The vertical axis is the number n of molecules per meters per second (m/s).

   An integral of the curves over all velocity gives the total number of molecules n = 10**6.

5. In brief, the curves are the distributions of molecules with velocity or, with the right conversion, kinetic energy.

6. As the image shows, the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution shifts to higher velocity or kinetic energy as temperature increases.

   In general for distributions of microscopic particles, increasing temperature shifts the distribution of microscopic particles to higher energy levels. The formula for the distribution depends on the physical system.

Credit/Permission: © User:Superborsuk, 2005 / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution 1.png.
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Extended file: Thermodynamics file: maxwell_boltzmann_distribution_4.html.
File: Thermodynamics file: maxwell_boltzmann_distribution.html.