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Boyle's Law states that the pressure of a given mass of gas, held at constant temperature, will vary inversely with the volume. This may be stated mathematically as:
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| i = initial state of process |
| f = final state of process |
For example if we take a sealed container of gas and compress it to half its volume (taking care to keep the temperature constant) the pressure will double.
This reason for the increase in pressure is that within the reduced volume the molecules will collide with each other and the container wall more frequently. The increased collisions result in a greater transfer of kinetic energy, which is felt as pressure.
For example if the volume is halved, the molecules will collide with the container wall twice as often.
The simple experiment below will demonstrate Boyle's Law by allowing you to vary the volume of a gas and observe the effect on the pressure.
Click on the button to vary the volume
We have stated that Boyle's Law remains true only as long as the temperature remains constant. For example in the experiment above, to ensure the final temperature was the same as the initial temperature we had to remove heat energy from the gas during compression. This is because when a gas is compressed by work its internal energy will rise. The next page will examine the relationship between:
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| Pressure | The Atmosphere | Volume and Temperature | |||