[BeijingDui]

My question is, "Do all individual atoms of each element such as all atoms of, say, gold, vibrate at the same speed?"

Lets say you analyze each individual atom of hydrogen, do all the elements vibrate at the same time? Not simultaneously, but in time with each other.

I'm doing a project for Beijing MUN and I'm trying to learn a little bit about chemistry so I started thinking and got stuck at this particular question. Any help would be great. Or even pointing me in the right direction. Thanks!

[Borek]

Define "speed". Define "vibrate". Do you mean frequency or phase?

Most likely answer is No, regardless of what you mean.

[Napalm588]

Each particle is going to move at a different rate, With an average that depends on the energy in the object.

So I guess no? They will not all move at the same rate.

[Quantum07]

The answer is no.

The explanation can be quite cumbersome and takes lots of math to explain and having taken P. Chem.

The simple explanation is if you think about what TEMPERATURE is defined as: a measure of the average kinetic energy of many particles.

Kinetic energy is the energy of motion ... E= 1/2mv^2 if you have taken physics.

If temperature is the measure of AVERAGE kinetic energy and kinetic energy is the energy of motion taking into consideration mass and velocity then it is IMPOSSIBLE that all the atoms are moving at the exact same speed or vibrating at the same time.

If you take a sample of 1.00g of Hydrogen gas...that is  6020000000000000000000 molecules. Perhaps only one is moving at a speed of 30m/s or 2 atoms...or 100000 or 200000 who knows. We can only know AVERAGES.