Welcome To KMT Town

Here we are in Kinetic Molecular Theory Town! It’s just called “KMT Town,” by its residents, whom we like to call “molecules”. There are a few very important things you need to know before you visit here. It’s a crazy, fast paced city that never sleeps!

Here the first thing you need to know to survive in KMT Town. The residents never stop for anything!

Molecules are in constant motion.

They just move and move and move! They don’t ever stop!

Although, legend has it that if the weather ever got cold enough - and we’re talking absolute zero, 0°K - cold, then all the residents will move so slow they will actually stop!

What’s that you ask? What’s the weather got to do with speed? Well that’s the second fact you need to know about KMT Town. They get just about every type of weather imaginable there, but one constant always remains true.

The higher the temperature, the faster the molecules move.

This might not come as much of a surprise to you. I mean, we all slow down a bit in the winter, right? But when it comes to molecules, temperature is actually kinetic energy. So the higher their temperature, the more energy they have. An increase in temperature means an increase in speed! And they will only stop at absolute zero degrees. No temperature, no energy, no movement.

With both of these things in mind, the third important fact about the residents of KMT Town is not so surprising. They move constantly and speed up with rising temperatures; it’s to be expected that they run into things! Well, the gases and liquid molecules crash into things, anyway.

Gas and Liquid molecules collide with the sides of their container and exert pressure on it.

They are always ramming into things, those molecules. And the faster they go, the more they run into things! And when molecules hit something, usually the edges of whatever they’re inside, they are exerting a pressure on it. The more molecules there are and the less space they have, the more pressure!

This, however, is only when you’re talking about the gas or liquid molecules.

You see, the gaseous residents of KMT Town are truly crazy in their movements. They just race off in straight lines until they hit something and bounce off in another direction. They like to call it Translational movement.

And Liquid molecules are less wild, but still move about a great deal. They circle each other in Rotational movements, sticking close to each other due to IMFs, but that’s a whole-other –blog-post.

But the stuck up solid molecules don’t get around much at all. They just sort of sit around and chatter using a Vibrational movement. They don’t exert any pressure. But keep in mind that they are still moving, technically, and they do still speed up and slow down according to temperature.

So, to sum things up, the terribly important things you must know about KMT Town and its molecular residents is:

1. Molecules are in constant motion

2. Solids vibrate, liquids rotate, and gases shoot around in translational movement

3. Molecules all speed up when temperature increases and vise versa when temperature decreases

4. Gas and liquid molecules collide with things and exert pressure

Keep all that in mind and you will be able to navigate Kinetic Molecular Theory Town with ease!

See you there!