Question

Two molecules of gas have speeds of `9 xx 10^(6) ms^(-1)` and `1 xx 10^(6) ms^(-1)` respectively. What is the root mean square speed of these molecules?

Answer 1

Here, `upsilon_(1) = 9 xx 10^(6)m//s^(-1) , upsilon_(2) = 1 xx 10^(6) ms^(-1)`
`upsilon_(rms) = sqrt((upsilon_(1)^(2)+upsilon_(2)^(2))/(2)) = sqrt(((9xx10^(6))^(2)+(1xx10^(6))^(2))/(2)) = sqrt(41) xx 10^(6)m//s`.