Gas Laws

Resources on these topics pages are here to assist you in your mastery of course content. None of the work, etc, on these pages are 'required,' so to speak. It is provided for you to use as fits into your overall approach to studying for this course. 

• General and detailed objectives give you an idea of how you will be assessed over each objective and can serve as a 'study guide' of sorts

• Slides are the raw material from which I build my in-class lectures. Annotated slides will be provided after lectures on the course schedule.

• When available, Reading Guides are provided to assist you in taking and organizing notes as you read the textbook. 

• Any supplemental videos provided are produced by myself other chemistry education professionals.

• Any additional practice provided contains answer keys, so that you may check your work.

Gas Laws Objectives

1. Understand pressure 

2. Understand and apply the relationships between pressure, volume, amount, and temperature of gases 

3. Apply the gas laws to stoichiometric calculations 

4. Apply Dalton's Law of partial pressures 

5. Understand kinetic molecular theory as applied to gases 

6. Recognize why gases do not behave ideally 

 Objective 1: Understand pressure 

• Read Section 8.1 - Gas Pressure

Upon successful completion of this unit you should be able to;

• • Define the property of pressure

  • Define and convert among the units of pressure measurements

  • Describe the operation of common tools for measuring gas pressure

  • Calculate pressure from manometer data

 Objective 2: Understand and apply the relationships between pressure, volume, amount, and temperature of gases 

• Read Section 8.2 - Relating Pressure, Volume, Amount, and Temperature: The Ideal Gas Law

Upon successful completion of this unit you should be able to;

• • Identify the mathematical relationships between the various properties of gases

  • Use the ideal gas law, and related gas laws, to compute the values of various gas properties under specified conditions

Objective 3: Apply the gas laws to stoichiometric calculations 

• Read Section 8.3 - Stoichiometry, of Gaseous Substances, Mixtures, and Reactions

Upon successful completion of this unit you should be able to;

• • Use the ideal gas law to compute gas densities and molar masses

  • Perform stoichiometric calculations involving gaseous substances

  • State Dalton’s law of partial pressures and use it in calculations involving gaseous mixtures

Objective 4: Apply Dalton's Law of partial pressures 

• Read Section 8.4 - Effusion and Diffusion of Gases

Upon successful completion of this unit you should be able to:

• • Define and explain effusion and diffusion

  • State Graham’s law and use it to compute relevant gas properties

Objective 5: Understand kinetic molecular theory as applied to gases 

• Read Section 8.5 - The Kinetic Molecular Theory

Upon successful completion of this unit you should be able to;

• • State the postulates of the kinetic-molecular theory

  • Use this theory’s postulates to explain the gas laws

Objective 6: Recognize why gases do not behave ideally 

• Read Section 8.6 - Non-Ideal Gas Behavior

Upon successful completion of this unit you will be able to;

• • Describe the physical factors that lead to deviations from ideal gas behavior

  • Explain how these factors are represented in the van der Waals equation

  • Define compressibility (Z) and describe how its variation with pressure reflects non-ideal behavior

  • Quantify non-ideal behavior by comparing computations of gas properties using the ideal gas law and the van der Waals equation