1.1 What is Chemistry?

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14.2 Gas Laws


14.2 Gas Laws


Lesson Objectives



  • Describe various observed relationships between the pressure, volume, temperature, and amount of a gas,
    including Boyle’s law, Charles’s law, Gay-Lussac’s law, and Avogadro’s law. Be able to perform calculations
    using these relationships.

  • Be able to derive a combined gas law, and utilize this expression to calculate volume, temperature, and pressure
    changes in gas systems.

  • Describe the ideal gas equation PV=nRT and perform calculations using this relationship.


Lesson Vocabulary



  • Boyle’s Law: States that for a fixed amount of gas at a constant temperature, the volume occupied is inversely
    proportional to its pressure.

  • absolute zero: The lower limit for possible temperatures, a value of 0 Kelvin or -273°C.

  • Charles’s Law: States that for a fixed amount of gas at a constant pressure, the volume is directly proportional
    to its absolute temperature.

  • Gay-Lussac’s Law: States that pressure is directly proportional to the absolute temperature.

  • Avogadro’s Law: Stats that if you compare two samples of an ideal gas at the same temperature, pressure,
    and volume, they contain the same number of molecules.

  • ideal gas law: The equation of state that describes the relationship between temperature, pressure, volume,
    and amount of an ideal gas. Derived from a combination of Boyle’s, Charles’s, Gay-Lussac’s and Avogadro’s
    gas laws.


Check Your Understanding



  • One of the earliest air pumps was made by Robert Boyle. The figure below is a diagram of his early pump.


What do you suppose the relationship is between pressure and volume as shown here?

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