THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Laboratory Exercise 2 Exploring the behavior of Gases.

Student Name: Imani Richards - 91550

Get StArted: Click on this link to open the gas simulation or you can find the
simulation on the same canvas page where you downloaded/opened this document.

PArt I
Go to intro. Choose only one type of particle.

Record the pressure, temperature and volume.

[3 marks]
Initial Parameters:
Pressure Temperature Volume (m3)
(kPa) (K)
0 300 1 x 10-24

Give one pump of gas and observe the behavior. How would you describe this?
[2 marks]
The particles gained kinetic energy and began to move rapidly around the container it was
held in.
Record the pressure, temperature, and volume.
[3 marks]

Parameters after one Gas Pump

Pressure Temperature Volume (m3)
(kPa) (K)
592 300 1 x 10-24

Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro

 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Hold volume and temperAture constant and give one more pump. Record the number of
particles and the pressure in the data table below. Describe the behavior that was observed (what
you saw?). [5 marks]

Repeat this a few times, either by increasing or decreasing the number of the Heavy (blue)
type of particles.

Number of Pressure
Particles (kPa)
100 1183
150 1775
200 2366
250 2958
300 3550
Data table
Answer the following questions based on your observations:
Is there a relationship between the number of particles and the pressure?
Briefly describe this. [2 marks]
As the number of particles increased in the container the pressure increased,
one could say pressure in directly proportional to the number of particles in
the container.

What is the pressure in the container due to? (what assumption was made?)
The pressure is due to how many particles were pumped into the container, as more
particles were pumped in the container the pressure inside the container increased.

[2 marks]

Part II:
There Are 3 parameters that need to be specified when describing a specific quantity of a Gas.
They Are: Pressure, Volume and TemperAture. We will keep the number of pArticles constant in
each “experiment” and explore the effect (if Any) a change in any of these parameters may have on
the behaVior of the gas.
Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro
 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

In the simulation Choose the Laws option on the right. See picture.

Experiment 1- Volume
Give one pump of gAs into the chAmber.
Choose to hold the volume constant by selecting the option shown at the upper
right-Hand corner. See the picture. Answer questions below.

What is the initial temperature (in K) and pressure (in Pa) in the chamber?
[2 marks] Initial temperature =300K
Pressure = 592kPa
Use the slider at the bottom of the simulator (like shown on figure) to add heat
and double the temperature.

Did the pressure go up or go down? What is the new pressure in the chamber?
[2 marks] The pressure went up, the new pressure is 1183kPa in the chamber.

Keeping the volume constant (And the number of particles constant), change the
temperature and record the pressure. Repeat 5 times and record your data.
Sketch a graph and insert. Be sure to give a title to your graph and label the Axis
completely.
Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro
 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

[5 marks]
TemperAture (K) Pressure (kPa)
700 1381
800 1577
900 1774
1000 1973
1100 2168

Describe the graph and explain its relationship:

[5 marks]
INSERT GRAPH HERE

This graph obeys Gay – Lussac Law , as pressure increases so does

temperature.

Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro

 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Experiment 2 – Temperature
1. Reset the simulator by selecting the reset button in the bottom
right corner of the simulation.
2. Give one pump of gas into the chamber.
3. Choose to hold the temperature constant by
selecting that option in the upper right-Hand corner. See
the picture.
What is the initial pressure (in Pa) in the chamber?

[1 mark] 592000

4. Locate the handle on the left of the chamber and slide it to the right as far as it will go.
What units are used to measure the width of the chamber? Nm is used to measure the
width of the chamber.

[1 mark]

5. Does the volume go up or go down when you slide it to the right? The volume goes
up when I slide the handle to the right.

[2 marks]

6. Did the pressure go up or go down? The pressure went down.; Why? The pressure
went down because the volume increased, as the volume increased there was more
space for the particles to move therefore increasing the pressure.

[4 marks]

7. Slide the handle all the way to the left as far as it will go. Did the pressure go up
or go down? Why?
[4 marks] The pressure increased, this is because as volume decreased there was less
space for the particles to move therefore increasing the pressure.

Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro

 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

8) Keeping the temperature constant (and the number of particles constant), change
the volume and record the pressure. Repeat 5 times and record your data.
Sketch a graph to the right of the table. Be sure to give a title to your graph and
label the axis completely. [5 marks]

Volume (nm3) Pressure (kPa)

5 1183
8 742
10 595
13 456
15 394

Describe the graph and explain its relationship:

[5 marks]

INSERT GRAPH HERE

Pressure vs Volume graph

1400

1200

1000
Pressure(kPa)

800

600

400

200

0
4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Volume (nm^3)

This graph obeys Boyle’s Law, as pressure increases the volume decreases.
Experiment 3 – Pressure
Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro
 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

1. Reset the simulator by selecting the reset button in the bottom right corner of the
simulation.
2. Give one pump of gas into the chamber.
3. Choose to hold the pressure constant by selecting that option in the upper right-
Hand corner. See the picture.
4. What is the initial temperature (in K) in the chamber?592kPa
[2 Marks]

5. Use the slider at the bottom of the simulator to add heat and increase the
temperature.
Did the volume go up or go down?
[2 marks] The volume went up when I added heat and increased the temperature.

6. Keeping the pressure constant (And the number of particles constant), change
the
temperature and record the volume. RepeAt 5 times and record your data. Sketch a graph to
the right of the table. Be sure to give a title to your graph and label the axis completely.
[5 marks]

TemperAture (K) Volume (nm3)

150 5
240 8
298 10
391 13
450 15
Describe the graph and explain its relationship:
[5 marks]

INSERT GRAPH HERE

Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro

 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Volume vs Temperature graph

16
14
12
Volume(nm^3)

10
8
6
4
2
0
100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
Temperature(kPa)

This graph obeys Charle’s Law.

Discussion:
In each of the experiments, you held one parameter constant while changing the other 2
parameters. Summarize the findings of the experiments and explains what happened.

For Experiment 1: When temperature went up The pressure went up. Possible reason? [3 marks]
A possible reason for this is the force exerted by the particles per unit of area on the container is the pressure
so as temperature increases the pressure will increase.

Add Real world example? [2 marks] A kettle whistling

For Experiment 2: When volume went up The pressure went down Possible reason? [ 3 marks]
A reason for this is, less particles hit the area of the container making it have less kinetic energy. Providing
temperature stays constant they have the same kinetic energy so more of them hit the walls more making
pressure go up.

Add Real world example? [2 marks] Blowing air into a balloon.

Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro

 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Experiment 3: When temperature went down, the volume went down. Possible reason? [3
marks]
A possible reason for this is since we increase the temperature inside a material the molecules’ kinetic
energy increases and they start to vibrate more and move around further from each other, therefore
accounting for an increase in volume.

Add Real world example? [2 marks] Hot air balloon

What was the principle that governed the processes in each experiment? How this
principle influenced the outcome? [6 marks]
Boyle’s Law – The pressure of gas is inversely proportional to its volume at constant
temperature. This relates to experiment number 2.
Charle’s Law – The volume of gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature
providing temperature is constant. This related to experiment number 3.
Gay – Lussac’s Law – The pressure of given mass of gas is directly proportional with the
absolute temperature of the gas when the volume is kept constant. This relates to
experiment number 1.

Investigates the types of errors (systematic and Random errors) that can affect a
laboratory session like this and explain which ones can affect the results of this
experiment in this section. [6 marks]

1) There may have been leakage of gas due to varying pressure

2) It may have been harder to keep the temperature constant during the lab without a
controlled environment
3) Due to it being a simulation, high temperatures are easy to simulate and would be
more difficult to control in a lab

Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro

 THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
NETD DIPLOMA IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Conclusion:
Write the conclusion remarks based on your results. [5 marks]
In conclusion experiment 1 successfully carried out Gay – Lussac’s Law, experiment 2
successfully carried out Boyle’s law and experiment 3 successfully carried out Charle’s
Law. Different variables were held constant to achieve these results thus resulting in
changes of their other constants.

References: [1 mark]
(include references if these were used to facilitate your discussion and explanation of your

outcomes, use APA style of referencing)

Modified resource from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gases-intro