For a certain experiment a student plots the volume of a fixed mass of an ideal gas…
CHEMISTRY · Multi-part · A Level · Chemistry · Amount of substance · Amount of substance
Problem
For a certain experiment a student plots the volume V of a fixed mass of an ideal gas against its absolute temperature T and obtains a straight line that passes through the origin.
(i) Identify the thermodynamic process that must have been followed during this experiment.
(ii) Derive the mathematical relation between V and T for this process starting from the ideal–gas equation.
(iii) If the slope of the straight line obtained is k, express k in terms of the constant pressure P and the number of moles n of the gas.
(iv) Explain why the straight line is expected to intercept the temperature axis at T=0K when extrapolated backward, and comment on the physical significance of this observation.