CliffsQuickReview Chemistry
Chapter One
GASES
Chapter Check-In
Learning how the volume of any gas is affected by temperature
Using the Ideal Gas Equation
Learning to use Avogadro's number
Of the three common states of matter, the gaseous state was most easily
described by early scientists. As early as 1662, Robert Boyle showed
how the volume of a gas, any gas, changed as the pressure applied to it was
changed. Soon thereafter, the effects of temperature and the quantity of
gas on volume were discovered. The result of all these studies was a set of
fundamental mathematical equations known as the gas laws that applied
equally well to any gas, whether pure oxygen, nitrogen, or a mixture of the
two. Through careful studies of gases reacting with one another, Amedeo
Avogadro later concluded that equal volumes of different gases must contain
the same number of molecules. For example, 10.0 L of oxygen contained
the same number of oxygen molecules as there were nitrogen
molecules in 10.0 L of nitrogen.
As time passed, it became clear that one mole of any gas contained the
same number of molecules, 6.02 x [10.sup.23] molecules to be exact, a number
known today as Avoga ... read full excerpt from CliffsQuickReview Chemistry ebook
