Square root of the mean of squared molecular speeds
Mean speed (v_avg)470.7
Most probable speed (v_mp)417.15
Kinetic energy per mole3,656.08J/mol
Kinetic energy per molecule6.0711zJ
_speedUnitm/s
Most probable speed417.15
Mean speed470.7
RMS speed510.9
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v_rms = 510.9 m/s for nitrogen
The RMS speed of nitrogen molecules is 510.9 m/s, meaning the molecules are moving at roughly that speed on average when measured by the root-mean-square method.
The mean (average) speed is 470.7 m/s and the most probable speed is 417.1 m/s. The three differ because the Maxwell-Boltzmann speed distribution is not symmetric: v_mp < v_avg < v_rms.
Average translational kinetic energy is 3656.1 J/mol. This depends only on temperature, not on the identity of the gas, because all ideal gas molecules share the same average kinetic energy at a given temperature.
Next stepRMS speed is a useful measure because the square of velocity is proportional to kinetic energy. Pair it with pressure and volume data for full ideal-gas analysis.