In our study of classical mechanics, we learned that we had no choice but to lump lost mechanical energy into the microscopic random-motion realm that we broadly categorize as "thermal energy." We wi...In our study of classical mechanics, we learned that we had no choice but to lump lost mechanical energy into the microscopic random-motion realm that we broadly categorize as "thermal energy." We will see here the rather remarkable result that this form of energy can be well quantified (under appropriate conditions) with a single measurable quantity called temperature.
