MCQEasyJEE 2023Degrees of Freedom & Law of Equipartition

JEE Physics 2023 Question with Solution

A gas mixture consists of 22 moles of oxygen and 44 moles of neon at temperature TT. Neglecting all vibrational modes, the total internal energy of the system will be:

  • A

    4RT4RT

  • B

    11RT11RT

  • C

    8RT8RT

  • D

    16RT16RT

Answer

Correct answer:A

Step-by-step solution

Standard Method

Given: A gas mixture has 22 moles of O2O_2 and 44 moles of NeNe at temperature TT. Vibrational modes are neglected.

Find: The total internal energy of the mixture.

For diatomic gas O2O_2 with vibrational modes neglected:

UO2=52nRT=52×2×RT=5RTU_{O_2} = \frac{5}{2}nRT = \frac{5}{2} \times 2 \times RT = 5RT

For monoatomic gas NeNe:

UNe=32nRT=32×4×RT=6RTU_{Ne} = \frac{3}{2}nRT = \frac{3}{2} \times 4 \times RT = 6RT

Therefore, total internal energy is:

Utotal=5RT+6RT=11RTU_{\text{total}} = 5RT + 6RT = 11RT

So the computed value is 11RT11RT. The solution labels the correct option as A, which disagrees with the listed options; among the given options, 11RT11RT corresponds to option B.

Why each gas uses a different formula

Given: The mixture contains a diatomic gas O2O_2 and a monoatomic gas NeNe.

Find: Why their internal energies are added using different coefficients.

Neglecting vibrational modes means O2O_2 has only translational and rotational contributions, so:

U=52nRTU = \frac{5}{2}nRT

for the diatomic component.

Neon is monoatomic, so only translational motion contributes:

U=32nRTU = \frac{3}{2}nRT

Hence,

Umixture=UO2+UNe=5RT+6RT=11RTU_{\text{mixture}} = U_{O_2} + U_{Ne} = 5RT + 6RT = 11RT

Therefore, the correct option from the listed choices is B.

Common mistakes

  • Using 32nRT\frac{3}{2}nRT for both gases is incorrect because O2O_2 is diatomic, not monoatomic. Include rotational degrees of freedom for O2O_2 and use 52nRT\frac{5}{2}nRT when vibrational modes are neglected.

  • Using 72nRT\frac{7}{2}nRT for O2O_2 is wrong here because the question explicitly says to neglect vibrational modes. Do not include vibrational contribution unless the temperature regime requires it and the question allows it.

  • Calculating the gases separately but not adding their internal energies is incomplete because the system energy is the sum of energies of all components. First find each contribution, then add them to obtain the total.

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