The average kinetic energy increases with temperature (( \frac32kT )), so more molecules can acquire speeds significantly above the most probable speed.
Here are some extension questions related to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution: The average kinetic energy increases with temperature ((
: The y-axis represents the number of molecules (or probability density). The average kinetic energy increases with temperature ((
The high-energy tail is very sensitive to temperature; even a small ( \Delta T ) causes a large increase in the fraction of molecules with ( E > E_a ). The average kinetic energy increases with temperature ((