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Maxwell Boltzmann Distribution Video Lecture - Fluid Mechanics for Mechanical
Text Transcript from Video
- [Voiceover] So let's think a little bit about the
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
And this right over here, this is
a picture of James Clerk Maxwell.
And I really like this picture, it's with his
wife Katherine Maxwell and I guess this is their dog.
And James Maxwell, he is a titan of physics
famous for Maxwell's equations.
He also did some of the foundational work
on color photography and he was involved in
thinking about, "Well, what's the distribution
of speeds of air particles
of idealized gas particles?"
And this gentleman over here, this is Ludwig Boltzmann.
And he's considered the father or one
of the founding fathers of statistical mechanics.
And together, through the Maxwell-Boltzman distribution
they didn't collaborate, but they
independently came to the same distribution.
They were able to describe, "Well, what's the
distribution of the speeds of air particles?"
So let's back up a little bit or let's just
do a little bit of a thought experiment.
So let's say that I have a container here.
Let's say that I have a container here.
And let's say it has air.
And air is actually made up mostly of nitrogen.
Let's just say it just has only nitrogen in it
just to simplify things.
So let me just draw some nitrogen molecules in there.
And let's say that I have a thermometer.
I put a thermometer in there.
And the thermometer
reads a temperature of 300 Kelvin.
What does this temperature of 300 Kelvin mean?
Well, in our everyday life, we have
kind of a visceral sense of temperature.
Hey, I don't wanna touch something that's hot.
It's going to burn me.
Or that cold thing, it's gonna make me shiver.
And that's how our brain
processes this thing called temperature.
But what's actually going on at a molecular scale?
Well, temperature, one way to think
about temperature, this would be a very
accurate way to think about temperature
is that tempera-
I'm spelling it wrong.
Temperature is proportional to average kinetic energy
of the molecules in that system.
So let me write it this way.
Temperature is proportional to average kinetic energy.
Average
kinetic
energy
in the system.
I'll just write average kinetic energy.
So let's make that a little bit more concrete.
So let's say that I have two containers.
So it's one container.
Whoops.
And two containers right over here.
And let's say they have the same
number of molecules of nitrogen gas
And I'm just gonna draw 10 here.
This obviously is not realistic
you'd have many, many more molecules.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
And let's say we know that the
temperature here is 300 Kelvin.
So the temperature of this system is 300 Kelvin.
And the temperature of this system is 200 Kelvin.
So if I wanted to visualize what these molecules are doing
they're all moving around, they're bumping
they don't all move together in unison.
The average kinetic energy of the molecules
in this system is going to be higher.
And so maybe you have
this molecule is moving in that direction.
So that's its velocity.
This one has this velocity.
This one's going there.
This one might not be moving much at all.
This one might be going really fast that way.
This one might be going super fast that way.
This is doing that.
This is doing that.
This is doing that.
So if you were to now compare it to this system
this system, you could still have a molecule
that is going really fast.
Maybe this molecule is going faster
than any of the molecules over here.
But on average, the molecules here
have a lower kinetic energy.
So this one maybe is doing this.
I'm going to see if I can draw...
On average, they're going to have a lower kinetic energy.
That doesn't mean all of these molecules
are necessarily slower than all of these molecules
or have lower kinetic energy than all of these molecules.
But on average they're going to have less kinetic energy.
And we can actually draw a distribution.
And this distribution, that is
the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
So if we...
Let me draw a little coordinate plane here.
So let me draw a coordinate plane.
So, if on this axis, I were to put speed.
If I were to put speed.
And on this axis, I would put number of molecules.
Number of molecules.
Right over here.
For this system, the system that is at 300 Kelvin
the distribution might look like this.
So it might look
the distribution...
Let me do this in a new color.
So, the distribution
this is gonna be all of the molecules.
The distribution might look like this.
Might look like this.
And this would actually be the Maxwell-Boltzmann
distribution for this system
For system, let's call this system A.
System A, right over here.
And this system, that has a lower temperature
which means it also has a lower kinetic energy.
The distribution of its particles...
So the most likely, the most probable...
You're going to have the highest number of molecules
at a slower speed.
Let's say you're gonna have it at this speed
right over here.
So its distribution might look something like this.
So it might look something like that.
Now why is this one...
It might make sense to you that
okay, the most probable
the speed at which I have the most molecules
I get that that's going to be lower than the speed
at which I have the most molecules in system A
because I have, because on average
these things have less kinetic energy.
They're going to have less speed.
But why is this peak higher?
Well, you gotta remember we're talking about
the same number of molecules.
So if we have the same number of molecules that means
that the areas under these curves need to be the same.
So if this one is narrower, it's going to be taller.
And if I were gonna, if I were to somehow
raise the temperature of this system even more.
Let's say I create a third system or I get this
or let's say I were to heat it up to 400 Kelvin.
Well then my distribution would look
something like this.
So this is if I heated it up.
Heated up.
And so this is all the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is.
I'm not giving you the more involved, hairy equation for it
but really the idea of what it is.
It's a pretty neat idea.
And actually when you actually think about the actual
speeds of some of these particles, even the air around you
I'm gonna say, "Oh, it looks pretty stationary to me."
But it turns out in the air around you is mostly nitrogen.
That the most probable speed of
if you picked a random nitrogen
molecule around you right now.
So the most probable speed.
I'm gonna write this down
'cause this is pretty mindblowing.
Most probable speed at room temperature.
Probable speed
of N2 at room temperature.
Room temperature.
So let's say this that this was the Maxwell-Boltzmann
distribution for nitrogen at room temperature.
Let's say that that's, let's say we make
we call room temperature 300 Kelvin.
This most probable speed right over here
the one where we have the most molecules
the one where we're gonna have the most
molecules at that speed.
In fact, guess what that is going to be before I tell you
'cause it's actually mind boggling.
Well, it turns out that it is approximately
400, 400 and actually at 300 Kelvin
it's gonna be 422 meters per second.
422 meters per second.
Imagine something traveling 422 meters in a second.
And if you're used to thinking in terms of miles per hour
this is approximately 944
miles per hour.
So right now, around you
you have, actually
the most probable, the highest number
of the nitrogen molecules around you
are traveling at roughly this speed
and they're bumping into you.
That's actually what's giving you air pressure.
And not just that speed, there are actually ones
that are travelling even faster than that.
Even faster than 422 meters per second.
Even faster.
There's particles around you traveling faster
than a thousand miles per hour
and they are bumping into your body as we speak.
And you might say, "Well, why doesn't that hurt?"
Well, that gives you a sense of how small the mass
of a nitrogen molecule is, that it can
bump into you at a thousand miles per hour
and you really don't feel it.
It feels just like the ambient air pressure.
Now, when you first look at this, you're like
wait, 422 meters per second?
That's faster than the speed of sound.
The speed of sound is around 340 meters per second.
Well, how can this be?
Well, just think about it.
Sound is transmitted through the air
through collisions of particles.
So the particles themselves have to be moving
or at least some of them, have to be moving
faster than the speed of sound.
So, not all of the things around you
are moving this fast and they're
moving in all different directions.
Some of them might not be moving much at all.
But some of them are moving quite incredibly fast.
So, I don't know, I find that a little bit mindblowing.
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
And this right over here, this is
a picture of James Clerk Maxwell.
And I really like this picture, it's with his
wife Katherine Maxwell and I guess this is their dog.
And James Maxwell, he is a titan of physics
famous for Maxwell's equations.
He also did some of the foundational work
on color photography and he was involved in
thinking about, "Well, what's the distribution
of speeds of air particles
of idealized gas particles?"
And this gentleman over here, this is Ludwig Boltzmann.
And he's considered the father or one
of the founding fathers of statistical mechanics.
And together, through the Maxwell-Boltzman distribution
they didn't collaborate, but they
independently came to the same distribution.
They were able to describe, "Well, what's the
distribution of the speeds of air particles?"
So let's back up a little bit or let's just
do a little bit of a thought experiment.
So let's say that I have a container here.
Let's say that I have a container here.
And let's say it has air.
And air is actually made up mostly of nitrogen.
Let's just say it just has only nitrogen in it
just to simplify things.
So let me just draw some nitrogen molecules in there.
And let's say that I have a thermometer.
I put a thermometer in there.
And the thermometer
reads a temperature of 300 Kelvin.
What does this temperature of 300 Kelvin mean?
Well, in our everyday life, we have
kind of a visceral sense of temperature.
Hey, I don't wanna touch something that's hot.
It's going to burn me.
Or that cold thing, it's gonna make me shiver.
And that's how our brain
processes this thing called temperature.
But what's actually going on at a molecular scale?
Well, temperature, one way to think
about temperature, this would be a very
accurate way to think about temperature
is that tempera-
I'm spelling it wrong.
Temperature is proportional to average kinetic energy
of the molecules in that system.
So let me write it this way.
Temperature is proportional to average kinetic energy.
Average
kinetic
energy
in the system.
I'll just write average kinetic energy.
So let's make that a little bit more concrete.
So let's say that I have two containers.
So it's one container.
Whoops.
And two containers right over here.
And let's say they have the same
number of molecules of nitrogen gas
And I'm just gonna draw 10 here.
This obviously is not realistic
you'd have many, many more molecules.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
And let's say we know that the
temperature here is 300 Kelvin.
So the temperature of this system is 300 Kelvin.
And the temperature of this system is 200 Kelvin.
So if I wanted to visualize what these molecules are doing
they're all moving around, they're bumping
they don't all move together in unison.
The average kinetic energy of the molecules
in this system is going to be higher.
And so maybe you have
this molecule is moving in that direction.
So that's its velocity.
This one has this velocity.
This one's going there.
This one might not be moving much at all.
This one might be going really fast that way.
This one might be going super fast that way.
This is doing that.
This is doing that.
This is doing that.
So if you were to now compare it to this system
this system, you could still have a molecule
that is going really fast.
Maybe this molecule is going faster
than any of the molecules over here.
But on average, the molecules here
have a lower kinetic energy.
So this one maybe is doing this.
I'm going to see if I can draw...
On average, they're going to have a lower kinetic energy.
That doesn't mean all of these molecules
are necessarily slower than all of these molecules
or have lower kinetic energy than all of these molecules.
But on average they're going to have less kinetic energy.
And we can actually draw a distribution.
And this distribution, that is
the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
So if we...
Let me draw a little coordinate plane here.
So let me draw a coordinate plane.
So, if on this axis, I were to put speed.
If I were to put speed.
And on this axis, I would put number of molecules.
Number of molecules.
Right over here.
For this system, the system that is at 300 Kelvin
the distribution might look like this.
So it might look
the distribution...
Let me do this in a new color.
So, the distribution
this is gonna be all of the molecules.
The distribution might look like this.
Might look like this.
And this would actually be the Maxwell-Boltzmann
distribution for this system
For system, let's call this system A.
System A, right over here.
And this system, that has a lower temperature
which means it also has a lower kinetic energy.
The distribution of its particles...
So the most likely, the most probable...
You're going to have the highest number of molecules
at a slower speed.
Let's say you're gonna have it at this speed
right over here.
So its distribution might look something like this.
So it might look something like that.
Now why is this one...
It might make sense to you that
okay, the most probable
the speed at which I have the most molecules
I get that that's going to be lower than the speed
at which I have the most molecules in system A
because I have, because on average
these things have less kinetic energy.
They're going to have less speed.
But why is this peak higher?
Well, you gotta remember we're talking about
the same number of molecules.
So if we have the same number of molecules that means
that the areas under these curves need to be the same.
So if this one is narrower, it's going to be taller.
And if I were gonna, if I were to somehow
raise the temperature of this system even more.
Let's say I create a third system or I get this
or let's say I were to heat it up to 400 Kelvin.
Well then my distribution would look
something like this.
So this is if I heated it up.
Heated up.
And so this is all the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is.
I'm not giving you the more involved, hairy equation for it
but really the idea of what it is.
It's a pretty neat idea.
And actually when you actually think about the actual
speeds of some of these particles, even the air around you
I'm gonna say, "Oh, it looks pretty stationary to me."
But it turns out in the air around you is mostly nitrogen.
That the most probable speed of
if you picked a random nitrogen
molecule around you right now.
So the most probable speed.
I'm gonna write this down
'cause this is pretty mindblowing.
Most probable speed at room temperature.
Probable speed
of N2 at room temperature.
Room temperature.
So let's say this that this was the Maxwell-Boltzmann
distribution for nitrogen at room temperature.
Let's say that that's, let's say we make
we call room temperature 300 Kelvin.
This most probable speed right over here
the one where we have the most molecules
the one where we're gonna have the most
molecules at that speed.
In fact, guess what that is going to be before I tell you
'cause it's actually mind boggling.
Well, it turns out that it is approximately
400, 400 and actually at 300 Kelvin
it's gonna be 422 meters per second.
422 meters per second.
Imagine something traveling 422 meters in a second.
And if you're used to thinking in terms of miles per hour
this is approximately 944
miles per hour.
So right now, around you
you have, actually
the most probable, the highest number
of the nitrogen molecules around you
are traveling at roughly this speed
and they're bumping into you.
That's actually what's giving you air pressure.
And not just that speed, there are actually ones
that are travelling even faster than that.
Even faster than 422 meters per second.
Even faster.
There's particles around you traveling faster
than a thousand miles per hour
and they are bumping into your body as we speak.
And you might say, "Well, why doesn't that hurt?"
Well, that gives you a sense of how small the mass
of a nitrogen molecule is, that it can
bump into you at a thousand miles per hour
and you really don't feel it.
It feels just like the ambient air pressure.
Now, when you first look at this, you're like
wait, 422 meters per second?
That's faster than the speed of sound.
The speed of sound is around 340 meters per second.
Well, how can this be?
Well, just think about it.
Sound is transmitted through the air
through collisions of particles.
So the particles themselves have to be moving
or at least some of them, have to be moving
faster than the speed of sound.
So, not all of the things around you
are moving this fast and they're
moving in all different directions.
Some of them might not be moving much at all.
But some of them are moving quite incredibly fast.
So, I don't know, I find that a little bit mindblowing.
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Apr 21, 2026 Last updated
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