What exactly is 3/2RT and when do we use it?

[Kobe_Wright]

Title

[Ava Kjos 1D]

Internal energy is energy stored as kinetic energy and potential energy that can move in different ways, including translational energy, rotational energy, and vibrational energy. The translational energy is equivalent to 3/2RT and the rotational energy of a nonlinear molecule is also 3/2RT. Both of these contribute these help to determine the change in internal energy.

The textbook goes into more depth on this. I'm not sure where in the 6th edition it is, but if you have the 7th edition you can read 4B.3 (pages 260-261) for a better explanation.

[Matthew Mar 1J]

I don't know if this is directly related, but 3/2R (without the T) is the specific heat capacity of a monatomic ideal gas at constant volume (Cv) which is used in entropy problems (/\S = n Cv ln(T1/T2)) which is a more practical application.

[Kobe_Wright]

I don't know if this is directly related, but 3/2R (without the T) is the specific heat capacity of a monatomic ideal gas at constant volume (Cv) which is used in entropy problems (/\S = n Cv ln(T1/T2)) which is a more practical application.

Then what about when it is constant pressure?

[Abby-Hile-1F]

Do you just use 5/2R when it is at constant pressure?