4 ms·
kT is very little energy compared to a chemical bond. Take for example [0], they give an excitation energy for water of about 8 electron Volts which is ~750 kJ/
by tiplus 10y ago
kT is very little energy compared to a chemical bond. Take for example [0], they give an excitation energy for water of about 8 electron Volts which is ~750 kJ/mol, whereas kT at room temp is about 2.5 kJ/mol.
[0] http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/128/10/10.1063/1.2837827 http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/128/10/10.1...
- donovanr 10y agoRight, but it's the 'every once in a while" part that I wonder about, i.e. the variance of that distribution. Maybe you could argue that since the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is narrower the lower its mean, if kT is small then it's an exponentially tiny effect.
- tiplus 10y agoSo yes, kT is small on average (does fluctuate) and it is also 1 kT per degree of freedom. So yes, in principle a few hundreds of atoms could randomly fluctuate in energy to create this effect. However, this is hyper unlikely. I would be suprisd if it happened once in the life time of the universe. Also consider that you cannot create Maxwell demons[1]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon