Log In | Register

Item EG085002: For two glasses containing the same number of water molecules, the water with molecules that are moving faster has more thermal energy because thermal energy depends on the average speed of the molecules.

A student has two glasses of water. Glass 1 and Glass 2 have the same number of water molecules in them.

If the average speed of the water molecules in Glass 1 is more than the average speed of the water molecules in Glass 2, will the water in both glasses have the same amount of thermal energy? Why or why not?

  1. Yes, because water has the same amount of thermal energy regardless of how fast the water molecules are moving
  2. Yes, because thermal energy depends only on the number of molecules, and there are the same number of water molecules in each glass
  3. No, because thermal energy depends on the average speed of molecules, and the water molecules in Glass 1 are moving faster than the water molecules in Glass 2
  4. No, because thermal energy depends on how much molecules rub against each other, and the faster moving water molecules in Glass 1 are rubbing against each other more than the slower moving molecules in Glass 2
Distribution of Responses
Chart showing distrubtion of responses for Item EG085002
Scale Score for Item Difficulty
(200[Easy]-800[Difficult])
496
Students Responding Correctly
Group Correct Total Percent
Overall 3694 8399 44%
Grades
  4–5N/AN/AN/A
  6–8 1937 4700 41%
  9–12 1757 3699 47%
Gender
  Male1797411744%
  Female1831412544%
Primary Language
  English3239725645%
  Other36993639%

View data table