Boyle's Law and the Universal Gas Constant

750 Words2 Pages

Aim
• The experiment has three objectives:
• Validation of the Boyle’s gas law
• Determination of the gas moles used in the experiment
• Establishing the Universal Gas Constant (R)
Introduction / Background
Gases take one form of physical appearance for substances. By definition, a gas represents a grouping of molecules at a high energy such that the volume it occupies is determined by container, and can be molded and compressed into smaller packages via reduction of energy. Manipulating energy is the gases results into a change in form and physical appearance, which engages various phases from solid, liquid and gas. In the gaseous form the pressure (P), volume (V), absolute temperature of the gas (T), molar gas constant (R) and the number of moles (n) are the factors that can be manipulated to derive various characteristics of the gas to establish a relationship between the characteristic of the gas (Castka, Metcalfe, Davis, & Williams, 2002).
The traits of a gas in its ideal form are governed by the relationship: PV = n RT (Guch, 2003). A change in either of the values in the relationship results in a change to the other variable of the gas. Assessing the behavior of gases via manipulation of the characteristics is done by holding the factors constant (Zumdahl, 1998). Where the number of gas moles, molar gas constant, and volume of the gas remain constant, a change in the temperature of the gas results to a change in the pressure as well. The ideal relationship between the gas factors is quite complex to be evaluated since it involves holding three of the five factors constant while two factors are assessed. Different gas laws derived from the ideal gas law can be evaluated individually since control can be easier conducted in l...

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...oth values of P obtained.
• There was no temperature change; else, it would not have remained constant failing to validate Boyle’s law.
• Converting the pressures into absolutes was not necessary in calculating R.
Summary/ Conclusion
The experiment validated the relationship between pressure and volume, thus proves Boyle’s law. The universal gas constant that was obtained was lower than the theoretical value, which could have been attributed to errors in the experiment.

References
Castka, J. F., Metcalfe, H. C., Davis, R. E., & Williams, J. E. (2002). Modern Chemistry. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Guch, I. (2003). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry. New York: Alpha, Penguin Group Inc.
Meyer, S. (2011). Gases and Their Properties. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group.
Zumdahl, S. S. (1998). Chemical Principles. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

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