How do partial pressures affect each other?

1 Answer
May 3, 2015

I'm assuming you're referring to specifically ideal gases. Partial pressure is just the fraction of the total pressure a gas happens to take up in a container. If the partial pressure of H2(g) is 0.2 atm, then it takes up 20% or so of a container with 0.2 atm H2(g) and 0.8 atm of other gases like N2(g) and Ar(g).

One relevant virtue of ideal gases is that they do not interact whatsoever. They elastically collide with each other and do not "stick" to their containers. So, partial pressures are like percents of total pressure for ideal gases.

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