“A hot object has greater average kinetic energy but may not have greater total kinetic energy “

Question

“A hot object has greater average kinetic energy but may not have greater total kinetic energy “

In: 1

Answer 1

Analogy: think of the country of Richovia, which has two people. One has 4 million dollars, the other has 6 million.

Next door is Pooristan, with fifty million people. Each of them has one dollar.

Richovia’s average money per citizen is 5 million, and their total is 10 million.

Pooristan’s average per citizen is $1…but their total is 50 million. Lower average, higher total.

In the same way, you could have a small high-average-energy thing (match flame) and a big low-average-energy thing (old boulder) and the boulder could have a higher total energy, even though its average is way lower.