Question

hi i don't understand the maxwell bolzmann distribution curve! helllppppp

Answer 1

I found this website really helpful :D
http://www.webchem.net/notes/how_far/kinetics/maxwell_boltzmann.htm

Answer 2

I answered this on teh Physics group.

The maxwell-boltzmann distribution relates the probability of finding a particle in a gas of finite volume (and hence constant number of particles) with a particular value of kinetic energy. As such the temperature of a gas is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles within the gas. If you increase the temperature of the gas, you increase the average kinetic energy of the gas, which means you increase the range of values of kinetic energy that each individual particle can possess. In other words, there are more higher energy states for each particle to possess, meaning that not only will the peak shift to higher energy values, but it must decrease because less particles will have a kinetic energy close to the average kinetic energy of the gas.

A close analogy is having a container of water with one movable wall, as illustrated in the attached diagram. Imagine that the water in the container has a constant volume. If you move the wall to the right and left, then to conserve volume, the level of the water in the container rises and falls. The wall is analogous to the range of values that the particles in a gas can have (recalling that higher temperature corresponds to a larger range). The water level is analogous to the number of particles with a particular kinetic energy within the Maxwell-Boltzmann gas. In this case we will imagine that it represents the peak of the distribution. So if you increase temperature you move the wall to the right, and the water level falls. In the same way if you increase temperature of a gas, the range of values of kinetic energy increases, and the number of particles with energy close to the average value decreases i.e. the peak in the distribution decreases.

I dont know how clear this is but I hope this helps.