The internal energy U of a given state of the system is determined relative to that of a standard state of the system, by adding up the macroscopic transfers of energy that accompany a change of state from the reference state to the given state: : \Delta U = \sum_i E_i, where \Delta U denotes the difference between the internal energy of the given state and that of the reference state, and the E_i are the various energies transferred to the system in the steps from the reference state to the given state. It is the energy needed to create the given state of the system from the reference state. From a non-relativistic microscopic point of view, it may be divided into microscopic potential energy, U_\text{micro,pot}, and microscopic kinetic energy, U_\text{micro,kin}, components: : U = U_\text{micro,pot} + U_\text{micro,kin}. The microscopic kinetic energy of a system arises as the sum of the motions of all the system's particles with respect to the center-of-mass frame, whether it be the motion of
atoms,
molecules,
atomic nuclei,
electrons, or other particles (often expressed as thermal engergy/ temperature). The microscopic potential energy algebraic summative components are those of the
chemical and
nuclear particle bonds (e.g.
intermolecular forces), and the physical force fields within the system, such as due to internal
induced electric or
magnetic dipole moment (e.g.
intramolecular forces), as well as the energy of
deformation of solids (
stress-
strain). Usually, the split into microscopic kinetic and potential energies is outside the scope of macroscopic thermodynamics. Internal energy does not include the energy due to motion or location of a system as a whole. That is to say, it excludes any kinetic or potential energy the body may have because of its motion or location in external
gravitational,
electrostatic, or
electromagnetic fields. It does, however, include the contribution of such a field to the energy due to the coupling of the internal degrees of freedom of the system with the field. In such a case, the field is included in the thermodynamic description of the object in the form of an additional external parameter. For practical considerations in thermodynamics or engineering, it is rarely necessary, convenient, nor even possible, to consider all energies belonging to the total intrinsic energy of a sample system, such as the energy given by the equivalence of mass. Typically, descriptions only include components relevant to the system under study. Indeed, in most systems under consideration, especially through thermodynamics, it is impossible to calculate the total internal energy. Therefore, a convenient null reference point may be chosen for the internal energy. The internal energy is an
extensive property: it depends on the size of the system, or on the
amount of substance it contains. At any temperature greater than
absolute zero, microscopic potential energy and kinetic energy are constantly converted into one another, but the sum remains constant in an
isolated system (cf. table). In the classical picture of thermodynamics, kinetic energy vanishes at zero temperature and the internal energy is purely potential energy. However, quantum mechanics has demonstrated that even at zero temperature particles maintain a residual energy of motion, the
zero point energy. A system at absolute zero is merely in its quantum-mechanical ground state, the lowest energy state available. At absolute zero a system of given composition has attained its minimum attainable
entropy. The microscopic kinetic energy portion of the internal energy gives rise to the temperature of the system.
Statistical mechanics relates the pseudo-random kinetic energy of individual particles to the mean kinetic energy of the entire ensemble of particles comprising a system. Furthermore, it relates the mean microscopic kinetic energy to the macroscopically observed empirical property that is expressed as temperature of the system. While temperature is an intensive measure, this energy expresses the concept as an extensive property of the system, often referred to as the
thermal energy, The scaling property between temperature and thermal energy is the entropy change of the system. Statistical mechanics considers any system to be statistically distributed across an ensemble of N
microstates. In a system that is in thermodynamic contact equilibrium with a heat reservoir, each microstate has an energy E_i and is associated with a probability p_i. The internal energy is the
mean value of the system's total energy, i.e., the sum of all microstate energies, each weighted by its probability of occurrence: : U = \sum_{i=1}^N p_i \,E_i. This is the statistical expression of the law of
conservation of energy.
Internal energy changes Thermodynamics is chiefly concerned with the changes in internal energy \Delta U. For a closed system, with mass transfer excluded, the changes in internal energy are due to heat transfer Q and due to
thermodynamic work W done
by the system on its surroundings. Accordingly, the internal energy change \Delta U for a process may be written \Delta U = Q - W \quad \text{(closed system, no transfer of substance)}. When a closed system receives energy as heat, this energy increases the internal energy. It is distributed between microscopic kinetic and microscopic potential energies. In general, thermodynamics does not trace this distribution. In an ideal gas all of the extra energy results in a temperature increase, as it is stored solely as microscopic kinetic energy; such heating is said to be
sensible. A second kind of mechanism of change in the internal energy of a closed system changed is in its doing of
work on its surroundings. Such work may be simply mechanical, as when the system expands to drive a piston, or, for example, when the system changes its electric polarization so as to drive a change in the electric field in the surroundings. If the system is not closed, the third mechanism that can increase the internal energy is transfer of substance into the system. This increase, \Delta U_\mathrm{matter} cannot be split into heat and work components. If the system is so set up physically that heat transfer and work that it does are by pathways separate from and independent of matter transfer, then the transfers of energy add to change the internal energy: \Delta U = Q - W + \Delta U_\text{matter} \quad \text{(matter transfer pathway separate from heat and work transfer pathways)}. If a system undergoes certain phase transformations while being heated, such as melting and vaporization, it may be observed that the temperature of the system does not change until the entire sample has completed the transformation. The energy introduced into the system while the temperature does not change is called
latent energy or
latent heat, in contrast to sensible heat, which is associated with temperature change. ==Internal energy of the ideal gas==