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Unit 4
Introduction.
There are various ways that have been developed to describe how a gas behaves.
Kinetic Theory: - applies the laws of mechanics in a rather physical way using simple
averaging techniques to understand the way in which the behaviour of atoms leads to an
understanding of pressure and temperature for an IDEAL GAS.
(ii)
Statistical Mechanics: - a much more general and more abstract way of looking at a
collection of atoms from the point of view of the energies of a collection of particles this can be used to derive the laws of Thermodynamics. In its fullest form Quantum
Statistics, the ideas of quantum mechanics are included.
1
1
pV = nRT
p - pressure in Pa
V - volume in m3.
T - temperature in K... (Dont forget to convert C to K)
n - number of moles of gas.
where
number of moles
mass
relative molecular mass.
nRT
pV
nR
T
pV
T
Constant:
If one of the variables p, V or T were changed then all the others would change BUT the
equation pV/T would still give the same constant !
Hence
where p1
p2
p1 V1 =
T1
p2 V2
T2
"A" level problems quite often involve using this approach to calculate new values of p,V or T
after a change has been made to a gas.
The Gas Laws:
2
2
(i)
BOYLE'S LAW:
OR
(ii)
pV
Constant:
T
pV
constant
p1 V1 =
p2 V2
CHARLES LAW:
(iii)
pV
T
Constant:
constant.
T
V1
T1
V2
T2
pV
T
Constant:
p
T
constant.
p1
T1
p2
T2
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3