Glossary of Key Terms
- air pollution: chemicals and particles in the atmosphere that harm living organisms or damage the environment
- Air Quality Health Index (AQHI): a numerical scale used to indicate overall air quality based on concentrations of air pollutants including ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide
- Avogadro's law: the statement that the volume of gas is directly related to the amount of gas, when the temperature and pressure of the gas remain constant; equal volumes of gases, under identical conditions, contain the same number of entities
- Boyle's law: the statement that as the volume of a gas is decreased, the pressure of the gas increases proportionally, provided that the temperature and amount of gas remain constant; the volume and pressure of a gas are inversely proportional
- Charles' law: the statement that as the temperature of a gas is increased, the volume of the gas increases proportionally, provided that the pressure and amount of gas remain constant; the volume and temperature of a gas are directly proportional
- Combined gas law: the statement that the product of the pressure and volume of a gas sample is proportional to its absolute temperature in Kelvins
- Dalton's law of partial pressure: the statement that the total pressure of a mixture of non-reacting gases is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of the individual gases
- Gay-Lussac's law: the statement that as the temperature of a gas increases, the pressure of the gas increases proportionally, provided that the volume and amount of gas remain constant; the temperature and pressure of a gas are directly proportional
- greenhouse effect: a natural process whereby gases and clouds absorb infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface and radiate it, heating the atmosphere and Earth's surface
- greenhouse gas: any of several atmospheric gases (such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane) tha allow solar radiation to pass through the atmosphere but absorb infrared radiation emitted by the Earth, thereby trapping thermal energy and making Earth warmer
- ideal gas: a hypothetical gas composed of particles that have no size, travel in straight lines, and have no attraction to each other (no intermolecular forces)
- Ideal gas law: the statement that the product of the pressure and volume of a gas is directly proportional to the amount and the absolute temperature of a gas; pV = nRT
- Kinetic Molecular Theory: the idea that all substances are composed of entities that are in constant, random motion
- partial pressure: the pressure that a gas in a mixture would exert if it were the only gas present in the same volume and at the same temperature
- particulate matter: the mixture of very small solid and liquid particles found in the atmosphere
- petrochemical: a compound manufactured from a fossil fuel
- photochemical smog: a hazy cloud of air pollutants formed by the reaction of emissions of factories and vehicles with sunlight
- smelting: the chemical process that extracts a metal from its ore using heat and chemicals
- standard ambient temperature and pressure (SATP): 25oC and 10 kPa
- standard pressure: 101.325 kPa (often rounded to 101 kPa)
- standard temperature and pressure (STP): 0oC and 101.325 kPa
- temperature: a measure of the average kinetic energy of the entities of a substance
- universal gas constant (R): the constant in the ideal gas law equation that related the pressure, volume, amount, and temperature of an ideal gas
Definitions from: Harberer, S., Salciccioli, K., Sanader, M. (2011). Chemistry 11. Toronto, Canada: Nelson Education.