What is the effect of increasing temperature on kinetic energy distribution graphs?

Increasing the temperature of a system has a significant effect on the kinetic energy distribution of the molecules within that system. As the temperature rises, the average kinetic energy of the molecules increases. This is because temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles in a substance; therefore, higher temperatures correspond to higher energy.

On a kinetic energy distribution graph, the increase in temperature results in the entire distribution shifting to the right. This indicates that there is a greater average kinetic energy among the molecules in the system. As the distribution broadens due to the presence of more molecules achieving higher kinetic energies, the peak height of the distribution decreases because the area under the curve must remain constant if the number of molecules does not change. Essentially, while there are more particles with higher energy, fewer particles are congregating around the original average energy value.

Therefore, when assessing the effect of temperature on kinetic energy distribution graphs, it is observed that the average kinetic energy increases, the distribution shifts to the right, and the peak height decreases due to the spread of energy among a larger number of molecules at higher energy levels.