Boyles Law Essay

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NCSU – Dept. of Chemistry – Lecture Demonstrations Gas Law / IMF Common Gas Law Experiments Collapsing Balloon (Charles’ Law) Description: A filled balloon shrinks when immersed in liquid nitrogen. Materials: Liquid Nitrogen Dewar Insulated Gloves Procedure: Carefully fill dewar with N2 (l). Add balloons to the dewar (suitcase analogy often used). Remove balloons with tongs to show the decrease in volume of the gas inside. Demonstrate that the gas remains inside the balloon by warming the balloon back to room temperature. The flashlight can be used to show that some of the components of air have been condensed. An extension of this demonstration is to distill the air following the procedure by Switzer (J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 251). Balloons Tongs Flashlight Discussion: Charles’ Law describes the relationship between temperature and volume for gases. The volume of a gas is directly proportional to its temperature. Safety: Wear insulating gloves when handling materials in liquid nitrogen. Reference: Oliver-Hoyo, M.; Switzer, W. L. J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 251. NCSU – Dept. of Chemistry – Lecture Demonstrations Gas Law / IMF Collapsing Metal Can (Boyle’s Law) Description: A metal can is crushed when immersed in cold water. Materials: Empty soda can Ice water Procedure: Add 15 mL of water to aluminum can and bring to a vigorous boil. Quickly invert the can and submerge it into the beaker filled with ice. At this point the can will collapse. Alternatively, the same concept can be demonstrated by adding water to an Erlenmeyer flask, heating the water to a boil and quickly placing a balloon over the mouth of the flask. When the flask is then submerged in ice water the balloon collapses inside the flask. Beaker Bunsen burner Discussion: Boyle’s Law describes the relationship between volume and pressure of gases. The volume of a gas varies inversely with

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