Verified Solution • 2025–26 Session moderate

QPage 32: Q4: HC Verma: Concepts of Physics - Volume 2 Kinetic Theory of Gases Page 32: Q4 Solution: Can we define the temperature of a) vacuum, b) a single molecule?

⚠️ Common Exam Traps & Conceptual Pitfalls

Students often treat temperature as the kinetic energy of a single particle and try to assign it to a vacuum or one molecule; remember that temperature is defined only for a macroscopic ensemble with a distribution of speeds, not for zero or one particle.

Can we define the temperature of a) vacuum, b) a single molecule?

Step-by-Step Verified Solution

**Answer:** (a) No, temperature of a vacuum cannot be defined. (b) No, temperature of a single molecule cannot be defined. **Step-by-Step Explanation:** Temperature is a statistical concept defined for a system containing a large number of particles. For a vacuum (no molecules), the concept is meaningless. For a single molecule, there is no distribution of speeds, so a statistical temperature cannot be assigned.

All Questions in this Chapter

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