Abstract

Introduction

The goal of this experiment is to determine the value of absolute zero while keeping the number of gas
moles(n) constant and while varying the number of gas moles in the absolute zero apparatus,
additionally, the number of gas moles is also calculated.

Theory:

For an ideal gas, its’ absolute temperature is defined by:

𝑇=(𝑉/𝑛𝑅)𝑃 (1)

Where, V = Volume, n = number of gas moles, R = Gas constant and P = Absolute Pressure.

From this equation, it is evident that the Absolute Temperature is directly proportional to the Absolute
Pressure and thus a graph of Temperature vs Pressure would portray a straight line where its equation is
defined by:

𝑦=m𝑥+𝑏 (2)

Where x = coordinate on x axis, slope = gradient of the line and b = y-intercept.

This

The slope of the line depends on the amount of gas in the thermometer, but regardless of the amount
of gas, the intercept of the line with the temperature axis should be at absolute zero. If we instead plot
the temperature in degrees Celsius, the intercept will not be zero, but rather the temperature of
absolute zero in degrees Celsius.

Procedure:

Please refer to the Lab Manual.

Data Analysis:

Exp. 1: Determining Absolute Zero while Keeping the Number of Gas Moles (n) Constant

The results from this experiment can be seen in Table one and using these results we are able to plot a
Temperature vs Pressure graph as seen below:
 Graph 1 showing Temperature (°C) vs (kPa) for
Exp 1
90
80
f(x) = 2.76428940716912 x − 251.990293255974
70
60
Temperature (°C)

50
40
30
20
10
0
90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125
Absolute Pressure (kPa)

From equation (2) we know that the y-intercept of the Temperature vs Pressure graph is the Absolute
Zero value. Therefore, through graphical analysis of Graph (1), the Absolute zero value is determined to
be -251.99 ± 0.5 (°C). Now comparing this value to the accepted Absolute zero value -273 (°C), the
measured value -251.99 ± 0.5 (°C) does not fall within range of the accepted value with a 7.69% error.

Exp. 2: Determining Absolute Zero while Varying the Number of Gas Moles (n)

In this experiment, three different data recordings were done, each of which had different starting
temperatures and through graphical analysis of the Temperature vs Pressure Graphs produced by these
recordings (these can be seen in the Appendix), the average value for absolute zero was measured to be
-255.577 ± 0.5 (°C) where all the values were within the uncertainty ranges of each other, illustrating the
precision of the experiment. However, when this measured value is compared to the accepted value of -
273 (°C), we see that there is a 6.382% error and therefore the measured value does not fall within the
range of the accepted value as the percentage error is too high.

Additionally, the volume of the Sphere was given to be 5.3520151 × 10 -4 m3 by the Lab manual. This value
was noted as it would be needed to calculate the number of moles and so using this volume and the
slopes of each graph, the average number of moles of gas, of each recording was calculated to be
Discussion/Conclusions:

References

Appendix

Results

Exercise one
Measuring Pressure as Temperature Drops
Absolute Pressure (kPa) Temperature (°C)
119.9 77.85
113.5 63.07
109.9 53.14
106.3 42.31
103.5 33.3
100.3 24.81
95.9 12.87

Exercise two:
 Starting at Cold Water
Trial 1 Trial 2
Absolute Pressure (kPa) Temperature (°C) Absolute Pressure (kPa) Temperature (°C)
98 5.15 97.6 3.35
106.7 29.12 106.5 28.05
125 77.94 121.2 67

Starting at Room Temperature Water

Trial 1 Trial 2
Absolute Pressure (kPa) Temperature (°C) Absolute Pressure (kPa) Temperature (°C)
97.4 28.27 96.9 27.2
108.8 61.79 105.7 52.54
89.2 4.3 89.1 3.7

Starting at Hot Water

Trial 1 Trial 2
Absolute Pressure (kPa) Temperature (°C) Absolute Pressure (kPa) Temperature (°C)
99.1 50.48 97.4 45.5
84.4 5.86 84.5 6.4
91.2 26.04 90.8 25.4