First slide

Law of equipartition of energy

Question

Assertion : The molecules of a monoatomic gas have three degrees of freedom.
Reason : The molecules of diatomic gas have five degrees of freedom.

Easy

A

Both Assertion and Reason are correct and Reason is the correct explanation of Assertion.
B

Both Assertion and Reason are correct but Reason is not the correct explanation of Assertion.
C

Assertion is correct but Reason is incorrect.
D

Both Assertion and Reason are incorrect.

Solution

A monoatomic gas molecules like He consists of single atom. It can have translational motion in any direction in
space.
Thus, it has three translational degrees of freedom f = 3. It can also rotate but due to its small moment of inertia,
rotational kinetic energy is neglected.
The molecules of a diatomic gas (like O₂, CO₂ , H₂) cannot only move but also rotate about anyone of the three
coordinates.
Hence, it can have two rotational degree of freedom.
Thus, a diatomic molecule has 5 degree of freedom, i.e. 3 translational and 2 rotational.

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