A. On average, when thermal energy is added to a substance, the energy is shared
ID: 1529853 • Letter: A
Question
A. On average, when thermal energy is added to a substance, the energy is shared equally among the degrees of freedom. Since the temperature of a substance is proportional to the average energy in a degree of freedom, which of the model substances do you expect would have the largest specific heat? (That is, which substance would change temperature the least in response to the addition of a given amount of thermal energy.)
---Select one---
a. N argon atoms
b.N rigid C-O molecules
c. N springy C-O molecules
d. N rigid water molecules
Explain why you chose the answer.
Explanation / Answer
d. N rigid water molecules
This is because rigid water molecules have the highest degree of freedom as 6 being non-linear molecule