Question #a7aeb

1 Answer
Jun 8, 2016

"600 torr"600 torr

Explanation:

The first thing to recognize here is that no mention is made of volume and number of moles of gas, which means that you can safely assume that they are being kept constant.

Under these conditions, pressure and temperature have a direct relationship described by Gay Lussac's Law.

In simply terms, when temperature increases, pressure increases as well, and when pressure decreases, temperature decreases as well.

![https://prezi.com/o_na8afnywry/gas-laws/](useruploads.socratic.org)

Mathematically, this is expressed as

color(blue)(|bar(ul(color(white)(a/a)P_1/T_1 = P_2/T_2color(white)(a/a)|)))" ", where

P_1, T_1 - the pressure and temperature of the gas at an initial state
P_2, T_2 - the pressure and temperature of the gas at final state

In your case, the temperature is said to go from "300 K" to "450 K". This increase in temperature could have only resulted from an increase in pressure, so right from the start you know that

P_1 < "900 torr" ->.the pressure of the gas increased

Rearrange the above equation to solve for P_1

P_1/T_1 = P_2/T_2 implies P_1 = T_1/T_2 * P_2

Plug in your values to find

P_1 = (300 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("K"))))/(450color(red)(cancel(color(black)("K")))) * "900 torr" = color(green)(|bar(ul(color(white)(a/a)color(black)("600 torr")color(white)(a/a)|)))

As predicted, the pressure of the gas increased from "600 K" to "900 K", which in turn caused the temperature of the gas to increase from "300 K" to "450 K".

SIDE NOTE The equation that describes Gay Lussac's Law can be derived from the ideal gas law equation

color(blue)(|bar(ul(color(white)(a/a)PV = nRTcolor(white)(a/a)|)))" "

where

P - the pressure of the gas
V - the volume it occupies
n - the number of moles of gas
R - the universal gas constant
T - the absolute temperature of the gas

When volume and number of moles are kept constant, you can rearrange the above equation to isolate the constants on one side of the equation

PV = nRT implies P/T = overbrace((nR)/V)^(color(red)("constant"))

This tells you that under these conditions, pressure and temperature have a direct relationship, i.e. when one increases, the other must increase by the same factor in order to keep the P/T ratio constant.

Therefore, if you have a gas at P_1 and T_1, and then at a second state P_2 and T_2, you will have

P_1/T_1 = color(red)("constant") " " and " " P_2/T_2 = color(red)("constant")

which implies that

color(blue)(|bar(ul(color(white)(a/a)P_1/T_1 = P_2/T_2color(white)(a/a)|))) -> the equation that describes Gay Lussac's Law