Thermal Escape — Free Online Kinetic Theory & Maxwell-Boltzmann Physics Game
Thermal Escape simulates a real gas — each particle's speed is drawn from the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Drag the temperature slider and watch the distribution shift as fast particles find the escape gaps. This is exactly how evaporation, atmospheric escape, and stellar wind work.
The physics behind the game
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
At any temperature, particles have a range of speeds — not all the same. The distribution has a peak (most probable speed) but a long tail of fast particles. Raising temperature shifts the whole distribution to higher speeds.
Thermal kinetic energy
Temperature is literally a measure of average kinetic energy per particle. Double the absolute temperature, double the average KE, increase average speed by √2.
Escape rate — Arrhenius equation
The fraction of particles exceeding the escape energy grows exponentially with temperature. This is why small temperature increases can dramatically speed up evaporation.
Atmospheric escape (Jeans escape)
Earth retains nitrogen and oxygen but slowly loses hydrogen — because H₂ molecules are light enough that even at 300K, enough of them reach escape velocity. Mars lost its atmosphere this way.