P V = n R T,
where P is the pressure of the gas in atmospheres, V is the volume of the gas in liters, n is moles of the gas, and T is the temperature of the gas in Kelvin degrees. R is the ideal gas constant. The Ideal Gas Law is a combined summary of Boyle’s Law, Charles’s Law, and the Avogadro’s Law. This Law works best under low pressure, room temperature (298K) environments because these environments allow gases to behave ideally, namely to assume that these gas molecules are point masses with no significant volume, experience little interaction with each other, and that all collisions (whether with each other or with the walls of the container) …show more content…
Or simply,
Ptotal = Pgas1 + Pgas2 + Pgas3 + Pgas4 + ... + Pgas n
As previously mentioned, R is the ideal gas constant. In addition to being featured in the Ideal Gas Law equation, R is also used in other equations of thermodynamics. Officially R is equal to 8.314 (L∙kPa)/(mol∙K), 0.08206 (L∙atm)/(mol∙K), or 62.36 (L∙mmHg)/(mol∙K).[1]
The objective of the lab is to prove the Ideal Gas Constant in the Ideal Gas Law. The gas, Butane, will be used to drain water from the
Procedure
A bucket was first filled with water and then the Graduated Cylinder to 250mL. Then a lighter was weighed on a balance. After all preparation work was complete, the graduated cylinder was turned upside down and the butane was released from the lighter into the cylinder until the water in the cylinder was level to the water in the bucket. The volume of gas was taken and the lighter was weighed once more.[2] …show more content…
The theoretical value 0.508g was obtained from the density formula using the density of butane with the given volume. The disparity of 0.177g between the theoretical and observed value is likely due to an amount of water entering the lighter during the filling phase of the cylinder when being submerged and remaining there. Other possible reasons for this disparity include an inaccurate volume of butane being added to the cylinder. This could be caused by either an incidence of air entering the graduated cylinder when it was being inverted as air can easily enter. This could also occur during the addition of butane as this requires angling the graduated cylinder at the water’s surface which also increases the chance of human error as it can cause air to enter the graduated cylinder and contribute to total volume, effectively reducing the amount of butane that would be