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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2006  > July  >
Research: Science and Education
The Heat Capacity of Ideal Gases
Robert L. Scott
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569
Cover
July 2006
Vol. 83 No. 7
p. 1071
Abstract
The heat capacity of an ideal gas has been shown to be calculable directly by statistical mechanics if the energies of the quantum states are known. However, unless one makes careful calculations, it is not easy for a student to understand the qualitative results. Why there are maxima (and occasionally minima) in heat capacity–temperature curves and where they occur are questions that are sometimes hard to answer. Fortunately, the statistical mechanical equation can be transformed to an exact variant that expresses the heat capacity as the sum of jumps from one quantum state to a higher one, and, with this, explanations become more transparent. In particular, figures show how the low-temperature rotational heat capacity arises from the sum of a very few jumps. Moreover, it is shown that the heat capacity reaches a virtually classical value long before the energy spacings become small in comparison with kBT.
More Information
*  Citation
 Scott, Robert L. J. Chem. Educ. 2006 83 1071.
*  Keywords
 Enrichment / Review Materials; Gases; Graduate Education / Research; Heat Capacity; Physical Chemistry; Statistical Mechanics; Textbooks / Reference Books; Thermodynamics; Upper-Division Undergraduate
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 5/26/2006
5/26/2006
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