Question

What is the partial pressure of carbon dioxide?

Answer 1

In what gaseous mixture? The air we breathe?

Explanation:

Well, in `100*g` of dry air there are `78.09*g` `"dinitrogen"`, `20.95*g` `"dioxygen"`, `0.93*g` `"argon"`, and `0.04*g` `"carbon dioxide"`, and small amounts of other gases.

And thus `chi_(CO_2)`, `"the mole fraction of carbon dioxide,"`

`=((0.04*g)/(44.01*g*mol^-1))/((78.09*g)/(28.01*g*mol^-1)+(20.95*g)/(32.0*g*mol^-1)+(0.04*g)/(44.01*g*mol^-1)+(0.93*g)/(39.9*g*mol^-1))`

`chi_(CO_2)=2.62xx10^-4`...and since the pressure is assumed to be `1*atm`...`p_(CO_2)=1*atmxxchi_(CO_2)=2.62xx10^-4*atm`..