What is temperature?

• A. the measure of the average kinetic energy of a substance
• B. the height of a body above absolute zero
• C. the rate at which heat is transferred
• D. the measure of density of a substance

Answer: (A)

Temperature is a measure of how hot or cold something is by reflecting how much its particles are moving on average. In kinetic theory, the average kinetic energy of these particles is directly related to temperature, so higher temperatures mean greater average motion. Absolute zero is the lowest possible temperature, but temperature isn’t a height or distance—it's a property describing particle energy. Heat transfer rate describes how fast energy moves between objects, and density is about how much mass sits in a given volume, not about how hot something is.