Ideal Gases Lab

Ideal Gases Lab

This laboratory had the the chance to teach physics' students the behavior of the gases within certain parameters, such as, at constant temperature, pressure, volume, and number of moles that the gas has. However, students were also able to see what can happen when one, two, or more parameters are changed.

Video

The first picture shows what happens when a soda can with water inside is heated. The outcome was that the rising in the temperature made some of the water become steam, increasing also the pressure inside the can and the temperature of the can itself. Once the can was put in contact with cold water, the pressure inside dropped dramatically, making the steam condensed and creating a 'vacuum'. Since the outside pressure is greater than the inside because of this momentary vacuum, the soda can will rapidly imploded.

This photo represents a relationship between temperature (T) vs pressure (p). Here students were able to see the that T and p are both related. If T increases the p will also increase, creating also a decreasing in the volume of the gas as the second picture shows. Although the graph is a straight line because the apparatus had a leak, the real graph would be a inverse relationship between p and volume.

The picture shown here, simple relates what happens when the volume (v) and pressure (p) are changed. The picture below, was a prediction made by the students to see what would happen when the p is taken from the vacuum machine above. Although it talks about to mass that were studied, the result was the same as it is written below.

1. When the p is taken from the vacuum machine, the 'molecules' of the study mass will release some of its molecules; in other words, they would have more space to occupy since the force caused by the pressure (downwards) will decrease, and the force that the study mass does (upwards) will increase.

2. When pressure is introduced to the vacuum machine again, there is an increasing in pressure, thus increasing the downwards force causing the study mass to become smaller than its original size. This happens because some of the molecules of the study mass leak when the pressure was taken. The downward force will continue to grow until the upwards force, made be the molecules from the study mass, reach the equilibrium with downwards.