The ideal gas law is based on two simplifying assumptions: first, that there are no intermolecular attractions between gas molecules, and second, that the volume occupied by the molecules themselves is negligible compared with the volume of the container. However, these assumptions don't hold up under all conditions - specifically, at high pressures and low temperatures, as gas tends to deviate from ideal gas behavior.The van der Waals equation is an enhanced version of the ideal gas law,...

The earliest recorded discussion of the basic structure of matter comes from ancient Greek philosophers. Leucippus and Democritus argued that all matter was composed of small, finite particles that they called atomos, meaning “indivisible.” Later, Aristotle and others came to the conclusion that matter consisted of various combinations of the four “elements” — fire, earth, air, and water — and could be infinitely divided. Interestingly, these philosophers thought about atoms and “elements” as...

An Otto engine is a four-stroke engine that uses a mixture of gasoline and air as the working fuel. The fuel is injected into the cylinder, and the piston is moved completely down so that the cylinder is at maximum volume. By moving the piston up, adiabatic compression takes place. The spark plug ignites the gasoline-air mixture, and the burning fuel adds heat to the system at a constant volume. The heated mixture expands adiabatically and gets further cooled by exhausting heat, and this cyclic...

Consider a binary electrolyte AB with a concentration ‘c’ that reversibly dissociates into its constituent ions. The degree of this dissociation is represented by ⍺. This means that the equilibrium concentration of each ionic species can be expressed as ⍺c. As well as this, the fraction of the electrolyte that remains undissociated at equilibrium is given by (1−⍺). The corresponding equilibrium concentration for this undissociated portion is then calculated as (1−⍺)c. For such solutions,...

The ideal gas law is an approximation that works well at high temperatures and low pressures. The van der Waals equation of state (named after the Dutch physicist Johannes van der Waals, 1837−1923) improves it by considering two factors.
First, the attractive forces between molecules, which are stronger at higher densities and reduce the pressure, are considered by adding to the pressure a term equal to the square of the molar density multiplied by a positive coefficient a. Second, the volume...

Thus far, the ideal gas law, PV = nRT, has been applied to a variety of different types of problems, ranging from reaction stoichiometry and empirical and molecular formula problems to determining the density and molar mass of a gas. However, the behavior of a gas is often non-ideal, meaning that the observed relationships between its pressure, volume, and temperature are not accurately described by the gas laws.