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Ideal Gas Law
- A gas law created by Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron.
- He was a French physical chemist. He made huge contributions to thermodynamics. He is also known for the Clausius-Clapeyron equation and for formulating the second law of thermodynamics.
- A gas law that combines Charles’s Law, Boyle’s Law, Gay-Lussac’s Law, Avogadro's Law, and the Combined Gas Law.
What is an Ideal Gas?
- An Ideal gas, obeys the assumptions of the kinetic molecular theory.
- In an ideal gas, we assume the particles have no volume. The volume of the system is much larger than the volume of the atoms or molecules. So, we assume the gas volume is negligible. The gas fills the container and has empty space between gas molecules. That means they are expandable and compressible.
- The gases do not experience any intermolecular forces. The gas particles move and collide, but do not interact/affect each other in any way.
- The gas particles always move in a straight line. They only change direction when they collide with their container or another particle.
- Collisions between gas particles are perfectly elastic. So, the kinetic energy is conserved.
- The average kinetic energy corresponds to the temperature in Kelvin. Absolute zero is the temperature where molecular motion stops.
What is the Ideal Gas Law?
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The ideal gas law states that for a specific amount of gas, the product of pressure and volume is directly proportional to the absolute temperature.
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The Ideal gas equation is:
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The ideal gas law states that all gases contain the same number of gas molecules when under equal temperature, volume, and pressure. That's why one mole of any gas fills a volume of 22.4 liters at STP. (Note: This does not mean that the gases have equal masses!)

Image source: Caroline Monahan
Ideal Gas Law Units Cheat Sheet:

Image source: Caroline Monahan
1) Identify the variables.
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Pressure = ?
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Temperature = 700 K
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Volume = 100L
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Number of moles of gas = 3.5 moles
2) Identify the correct R-value.
- In this case, we have liters for the volume, so we should use the corresponding R-value. That's
3) Plug values into the Ideal Gas Law equation and solve for the missing variable.
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PV = nRT
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P = 2.009 atm
Now try a practice problem!
What volume is used up by 8.66 mols of at 280K and a pressure of 200 Pa?


