Re: Ideal Gas Constant

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

> When plotting a Pv/T versus P graph for different gases (none ideal), they
> all converge to R as P goes to zero.  I would like to have an explanation
> to this.

How about this: The definition of an ideal gas precludes the
molecules of the gas from interacting with each other. As the
pressure of the gas decreases this condition becomes more and more
nearly correct, and so any gas can be approximated as an ideal gas if
the pressure is low enough. But the value of PV/T for one mole of an
ideal gas is just R, so a graph of PV/T vs. P for any gas must
necessarily approach R as P tends toward zero.

Sounds good to me.

By the way, Roy, you have been asking a lot of this kind of questions
recently. Is this some sort of test?

Hugh

--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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