Question

compare and contrast the average kinetic energy of 0.5 l of coffee at 34°c, 0.5 L of coffee at 38°c, and 0.25 L of tea at 43°c

Answer 1

It turns out that all you need to know to figure out the average kinetic energy of a system with tons of atoms is the temperature of the system.

\[Average E = \frac{ 3 }{ 2 } \kappa T\] where k is Boltzmann's constant.

Answer 2

The mass of the atoms... or the number of atoms you have... makes no difference. Isn't it crazy that you can know so much about how the atoms are moving by JUST knowing the temperature :)