The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is a statistical law that describes the distribution of speeds of particles in a gas. It is derived from the kinetic theory of gases, which assumes that gas particles are in constant random motion and that they collide elastically with each other and with the walls of their container. The distribution is characterized by the probability density function, which indicates how likely it is for a particle to have a certain speed . The formula for the distribution is given by:
where is the mass of the particles, is the Boltzmann constant, and is the absolute temperature. The key features of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution include:
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