If you want to solve for the volume of a gas (V2) and P1 is greater than P2, would you expect V2 to be larger or smaller than V1?

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Answer 1 · 2014-06-23T21:45:31

$V_{2}$ $V_2$ would be greater than $V_{1}$ $V_1$

The relevant gas law is Boyle's Law:
For a fixed mass of gas at constant temperature the pressure of the gas is inversely proportional to its volume.

$p \propto \frac{1}{V}$ $p prop 1/V$

So if the volume of the gas is increased the gas pressure will decrease.

We can also write the relationship above as $p V =$ $pV=$ constant

so $V_{2} = \frac{p_{1}}{p_{2}} \cdot V_{1}$ $V_2 = p_1/p_2*V_1$

In the case of this question $\frac{p_{1}}{p_{2}}$ $p_1/p_2$ is larger than 1 so $V_{2} > V_{1}$ $V_2>V_1$ .