Ideal Gas Law

An ideal gas is defined as one in which all collisions between atoms or molecules are perfectly eleastic and in which there are no intermolecular attractive forces. One can visualize it as a collection of perfectly hard spheres which collide but which otherwise do not interact with each other. In such a gas, all the internal energy is in the form of kinetic energy and any change in internal energy is accompanied by a change in temperature. An ideal gas can be characterized by three state variables: absolute pressure (P), volume (V), and absolute temperature (T). The relationship between them may be deduced from kinetic theory and is called the

PV = nRT=NkT
n = number of moles

R = universal gas constant = 8.3145 J/mol K; where n is the number of moles of the number of moles and R is a constant called the universal gas constant and is equal to approximately 0.0821 L-atm / mole-K. N = number of molecules k = Boltzmann constant = 1.38066 x 10-23 J/K = 8.617385 x 10-5 eV/K k = R/NA NA = Avogadro's number = 6.0221 x 1023 /mol

Sample Problem 6.2 liters of an ideal gas are contained at 3.0 atm and 37 C. How many moles of this gas are present? Step 1 (Convert C temperature to K) T = C + 273 T = 37 C + 273 T = 310 K Step 2 (Solve ideal gas law for number of moles) n = PV / RT n = ( 3.0 atm x 6.2 L ) / ( 0.08 L atm /mol K x 310 K) n = 0.75 mol Answer There are 0.75 mol of the ideal gas present in the system.