“Since the two containers of soup began at the same temperature, the molecules in the bowl of soup and the mug of soup started off with the same average kinetic energy. However, that doesn’t mean they had the same thermal energy. Thermal energy is the total kinetic energy of the molecules of an object or material, and not the average kinetic energy. Each molecule in an object or sample adds its kinetic energy to the total kinetic energy. The bowl contains a lot more soup than the mug, and because soup is made of molecules, more soup means more molecules. Each additional molecule contributes the kinetic energy of its movement to the total kinetic energy. As a result, your bowl of soup has much higher total kinetic energy (thermal energy) than your brother’s mug because it has more molecules to contribute to the total.”
