Internal Energy

Internal energy is defined as the energy associated with the random, disordered motion of molecules. It is separated in scale from the macroscopic ordered energy associated with moving objects; it refers to the invisible microscopic energy on the atomic and molecular scale. For example, a room temperature glass of water sitting on a table has no apparent energy, either potential or kinetic. But on the microscopic scale it is a seething mass of high speed molecules traveling at hundreds of meters per second. If the water were tossed across the room, this microscopic energy would not necessarily be changed when we superimpose an ordered large scale motion on the water as a whole.

Related energy quantities which are particularly useful in chemical thermodynamics are enthalpy, Helmholtz free energy, and Gibbs free energy.

Microscopic Energy

Internal energy involves energy on the microscopic scale. For an ideal monoatomic gas, this is just the translational kinetic energy of the linear motion of the "hard sphere" type atoms, and the behavior of the system is well described by kinetic theory. However, for polyatomic gases there is rotational and vibrational kinetic energy as well. Then in liquids and solids there is potential energy associated with the intermolecular attractive forces. A simplified visualization of the contributions to internal energy can be helpful in understanding phase transitions and other phenomena which involve internal energy.

Internal Energy Example

When the sample of water and copper are both heated by 1°C, the addition to the kinetic energy is the same, since that is what temperature measures. But to achieve this increase for water, a much larger proportion of the energy must be added to the potential energy portion of the internal energy. So the total energy required to increase the temperature of the water is much larger, i.e., its specific heat is much larger.