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4 votes
3 answers
591 views

Why potential energy is not considered in the internal energy of diatomic molecules?

In thermodynamics, I am taught that there are 5 degrees of freedom in diatomic molecules since there are 3 for translational and 2 for rotational. I interpret degrees of freedom as "ways you can ...
bluesky's user avatar
  • 303
2 votes
0 answers
90 views

Why does $\rm{H_2 O}$ have 12 degrees of freedom?

I know there will be 3 translational D.O.F. and 3 rotational D.O.F., and it can have 4 vibrational D.O.F. (one potential and one kinetic) for each O-H Bond. But from where does 2 more D.O.F. come from?...
Ujjwal's user avatar
  • 41
-1 votes
2 answers
696 views

Degrees of freedom of gas molecules

What is the degrees of freedom of a three dimensional polyatomic molecule when only one vibrational mode is excited?
user342326's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
335 views

Degrees of freedom for diatomic molecules [duplicate]

I have a doubt in understanding about the degrees of freedom (dof) ......as I have learned dof is nothing but the necessary parameters to specify the location and configuration of a system.....if that'...
It's probable's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

2 Extra Degree of Freedom in Linear Triatomic Molecules?

Ok, there is a bit problem in understanding Degree of Freedom of Linear Molecules specially of Triatomic Linear Molecules. See, the DOF in general is given as $f=3N-k$. Here, N=Number of atoms in a ...
lakhi's user avatar
  • 335
5 votes
2 answers
3k views

Actual Degree of Freedom of Diatomic Molecule

Ok, I have 2 very different values for degree of freedom(DOF) of diatomic molecules arising due to the difference in the vibrational DOF of the diatomic molecules. According to this DOF wiki page:- ...
lakhi's user avatar
  • 335
1 vote
1 answer
16k views

Why does water have 9 degrees of freedom and that too all vibrational?

How does water has 9 degrees of freedom? If it can vibrate about all three atoms then why can't a diatomic molecule also have 2 instead of 1 possible vibrations? I haven't studied quantum mechanics ...
Matt's user avatar
  • 644
3 votes
1 answer
42k views

Degrees of freedom in a diatomic molecule [duplicate]

We know that a monatomic compound can only have 3 degrees of freedom as we can consider it to be a point mass. However now that we consider a diatomic molecule, there are 3 degrees of freedom in ...
Russell Yang's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
6k views

Extra vibrational mode in linear molecule

When calculating the number of vibrational modes for a molecule, the formulas differ for linear $(n = 3N - 5)$ and non-linear $(n = 3N - 6)$ molecules, where $n$ is number of modes and $N$ is number ...
Jan Hirschner's user avatar
29 votes
2 answers
6k views

In counting degrees of freedom of a linear molecule, why is rotation about the axis not counted?

I was reading about the equipartition theorem and I got the following quotations from my books: A diatomic molecule like oxygen can rotate about two different axes. But rotation about the axis down ...
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