Charles’ Law accordance with Charles' law).

When the air inside the

balloon expands, it becomes less dense and provides the lift
for the hot air balloon.
 Solids & liquids expand/contract as temperature changes,
usually very small changes.  Relationship between V and T
 Gases show large volume changes with temperature changes Charles's law states that
the volume of a given amount
Jacques Charles (1746 – 1823) of gas is directly proportional
 balloonist to its temperature on the
 In 1787, he did experiments showing Kelvin scale when the pressure
how the volume of gases depends on is held constant.
temperature. At high temperatures, gas
 He proved that balloons can expand & particles move faster and
contract with the gas. collide with walls more often.

 Charles’ Experiment  Data for temperature-volume

balloon in an ice bath balloon in a hot water bath

In his experiment, Jacques Charles trapped a sample of gas in

a cylinder with a movable piston in the water bath at  Charles’ Law Graphically
different temperatures. Jacques Charles found out that  Plot V vs Kelvin T
different gases decreased their volume by factors 1/273 per  A straight line passing through the
°C of cooling. With this reduction rate, if gas is cooled up to - origin
273°C, it will have zero volume.  relationship between V & T is direct
 How do hot air balloons work?
In the case of a hot air balloon, upon  Charles’ Law Formula
ignition of the fuel, the temperature of the The temperature must be
V V1
air inside the balloon is increased. As a = = converted to Kelvin.
T T1
result, the volume of the gas increases (in K V2
T2
Problem 1: 150 mL of a gas is at constant pressure. The
temperature increases from 20˚C to 40˚C. What is the new
volume?

Step 1: Convert T1 and T2 to Kelvin.

V1 V2 150 mL V2
Step 2: =
T1 T2
becomes
293 K
= 313 K

Step 3: Rearrange and solve.

(150 m L)(313 K )
V2 =
292 K
46950 mL
V2 =
292 K
V2 = 160.79 mL