Robert Boyle, a British chemist gave the first gas law, now known as Boyle’s law. This law describes the relationship between the pressure and volume of a sample of gas confined in a container. Boyle observed that when the pressure on an ideal gas is increased volume decreases. Similarly, when pressure is released the volume starts to increase. But Boyle’s law is true only when the temperature of the gas remains constant and no additional gas is added to the container or leaks out of the container. On the basis of these observations, the Boyle’s law is stated as: ‘that the volume and pressure of a sample of gas are inversely proportional to each other at constant temperature’.
This statement can be expressed as follows.
where V is volume and P is pressure.
For two different conditions 1 and 2, Boyle’s law can be expressed as
P1V1 = P2V2
where P1 and V1 are pressure and volume, respectively, at condition 1 and P2 and V2 are pressure and volume, respectively, at condition 2.
Example 1.25: A sample of nitrogen collected in the laboratory occupies a volume of 720 ml at a pressure of 1 atm. What volume will the gas occupy at a pressure of 2 atm, assuming the temperature remains constant?
Solution:
Given: V1 = 720 ml; P1 = 1 atm; P2 = 2 atm; V2 = ?
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