5.2

Question 1

What are the features of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution? (4)

Answer 1

(1) No particles have zero energy
(2) Most particles have intermediate energies - around the peak of the curve
(3) A few have very high energies, there’s no upper limit
(4) The average energy is higher than the most probable energy.

Question 2

What does the area under the graph to the right of the Ea line represent? (1)

Answer 2

the number of particles with enough energy to react

Question 3

Explain what happens to the curve when the temperature is higher? (3)

Answer 3

(1) the peak of the curve = lower
(2) the peak of the curve = moves to the right
(3) number of particles with energy > Ea = increases

Question 4

Why does a small increase in temperature lead to a large increase in RoR? (2)

Answer 4

(1) large increase in the number of particles with energy > Ea
(2) frequency of successful collisions = increases