What does temperature measure?

What does temperature measure?

• A. The average kinetic energy of particles of matter
• B. The total mass of the substance
• C. The color of the substance
• D. The speed of light in a vacuum

Answer: (A)

Temperature tells us how fast the particles in a substance are moving on average, which means it reflects the average kinetic energy of those particles. As temperature increases, the average kinetic energy goes up, so particles jiggle more energetically. This is why hotter objects feel more energetic at the microscopic level. It's a per-particle measure, so two samples at the same temperature have the same average kinetic energy per particle, even if one sample has more particles and thus more total energy. Temperature isn’t about how much matter there is (mass), color, or the speed of light, which is a constant unrelated to a substance’s thermal motion.

Temperature tells us how fast the particles in a substance are moving on average, which means it reflects the average kinetic energy of those particles. As temperature increases, the average kinetic energy goes up, so particles jiggle more energetically. This is why hotter objects feel more energetic at the microscopic level. It's a per-particle measure, so two samples at the same temperature have the same average kinetic energy per particle, even if one sample has more particles and thus more total energy. Temperature isn’t about how much matter there is (mass), color, or the speed of light, which is a constant unrelated to a substance’s thermal motion.