What quantity did you change?
Labs / Physics
Kinetic Theory Box
Hundreds of molecules are bouncing elastically inside this box, and the histogram on the right tallies how fast they are going. Turn the temperature up or down and watch the whole Maxwell–Boltzmann curve slide and stretch. Drag inside the box to stir the gas and heat it with your own hand.
Labs / Physics / Kinetic Theory Box
Kinetic Theory Box
Hundreds of molecules are bouncing elastically inside this box, and the histogram on the right tallies how fast they are going. Turn the temperature up or down and watch the whole Maxwell–Boltzmann curve slide and stretch. Drag inside the box to stir the gas and heat it with your own hand.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Physics explains how changes in forces, energy, motion, and matter produce results we can measure. This model lets you test one part of that relationship at a time.
Explore
Try the model
avg speed 0 m/sT 0 Kpressure 0 kPa
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Crank the temperature up. Which way does the peak of the speed curve move — and does it get taller or shorter?
- At any single temperature, are all the molecules moving at the same speed, or is there a whole spread of them?
- Tag one molecule and follow its path. Can you predict where it will be a second from now?
- Add hundreds more particles without touching the temperature. What happens to the pressure, and why?
- Drag your pointer through the gas to stir it. Where does that energy go once you let go?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Name the quantity you changed, the quantity that responded, and the physical rule connecting them. Use a readout or visible change as evidence.
Check
Before you leave
What measurable result changed?
Which physical idea connects them?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.