Essential idea: Thermal physics deftly demonstrates the links between the macroscopic measurements essential to many scientific models with the microscopic properties that underlie these models.
Nature of science: Evidence through experimentation: Scientists from the 17th and 18th centuries were working without the knowledge of atomic structure and sometimes developed theories that were later found to be incorrect, such as phlogiston and perpetual motion capabilities. Our current understanding relies on statistical mechanics providing a basis for our use and understanding of energy transfer in science.
Understandings: Molecular theory of solids, liquids and gases; Temperature and absolute temperature; Internal energy
Applications and skills: Describing temperature change in terms of internal energy; Using Kelvin and Celsius temperature scales and converting between them
Guidance: Internal energy is taken to be the total intermolecular potential energy + the total random kinetic energy of the molecules
Data booklet equations: None
Excellent misconceptions video from Veritasium
Oxford Physics (2014): pages 92 - 95
Hamper HL (2014): pages 101 - 103
Hamper SL (2014): pages 101 - 103
Celsius and Kelvin: pages 135 - 137