Q.What do you understand by "mean free path"?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Mean free path is the average distance a gas molecule travels freely between successive collisions with other molecules.
In a gas, molecules are in constant random motion, continually colliding with one another. Between any two successive collisions, a molecule travels in a straight line for some distance before it hits another molecule. This distance varies randomly from one free flight to the next.
The mean free path, λ, is defined as the AVERAGE distance travelled by a gas molecule between two successive collisions with other molecules.
From kinetic theory, considering a molecule of diameter d moving through a gas with number density n (number of molecules per unit volume), and accounting for the relative motion of the other molecules, the mean free path is given by:
λ = 1 / (√2 n π d^2)
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