How can I estimate thermal energy at a temperature?

[devenpatel2O]

In the intro to organic chemistry text, there is a self test question in chapter 3 that asks whether a conformation could exist at room temperature (298 K). The solution states that an estimate for thermal energy is energy=kt, where t is temperature. What is k? Is this some kind of constant? In the solution, k is 1.38E-23 J/K.

Thanks for any insight.

[Chem_Mod]

k is Boltzmann's constant, which is actually just R (gas constant) divided by Avogadros' number 6.02x10^23. So while RT describes the energy of a mole of molecules, kT describes energy per every molecule.

[devenpatel2O]

Thanks for the quick reply! Makes sense now.