Container A holds 757 mL of ideal gas at 2.60 atm. Container B holds 164 mL of ideal gas at 4.80 atm. If the gases are allowed to mix together, what is the resulting pressure?

1 Answer
Nov 5, 2016

The ideal gas equation of state is

PV=nRT

In this problem we may consider the temperature to be constant, so we can set up an equation that represents the addition of the number of moles of gas in each container (multiplied through by RT).

(PA)(VA)+(PB)(VB)=(Pf)(Vf)

(2.6)(757)+(4.8)(164)=(Pf)(757+164)

Pf=2.99atm

As a check we could assume that T=300K and calculate the moles explicitly using n=PVRT:
nA=0.0800mol
nB=0.0320mol
Pf=nRTV=0.112×0.082054×3000.921=2.99atm