Question

page 276
what is thermal energy?
how does thermal energy different than temperature? (not in textbook)
(handwritten text: is energy due to the motion of particles that make up an object)

Explanation:

Thermal energy is the total kinetic energy of the particles (atoms and molecules) that make up an object. Temperature, on the other hand, is a measure of the average kinetic energy of these particles. So, thermal energy depends on the number of particles (the mass of the object) and their motion (kinetic energy), while temperature only depends on the average kinetic energy per particle. For example, a large iceberg (with a huge number of particles) has more thermal energy than a cup of hot coffee (fewer particles), even though the coffee has a higher temperature (higher average kinetic energy per particle).

Answer:

Thermal energy is the total kinetic energy due to the motion of particles that make up an object. It differs from temperature (which is the average kinetic energy of particles) as thermal energy also depends on the number of particles (mass of the object). So, two objects can have the same temperature but different thermal energies if they have different masses (amounts of matter, hence different numbers of particles).