In this internet-based activity, students investigate gas compressibility and gas expansion in a quantitative way. The end result will be an appreciation of Boyle’s Law and Charles’s Law.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- work with internet-based animations (Boyle’s Law and Charles’s Law) that allow scientific data to be recorded
- describe in qualitative terms the relationship between the pressure exerted on a sample of gas at fixed temperature and its volume
- develop a qualitative understanding of Boyle’s Law into a mathematical form of the law
- describe in qualitative terms the relationship between the volume of a sample of gas and the temperature it is subjected to
- use the Kelvin temperature scale
- develop a qualitative understanding of Charles’s Law into a mathematical form of the law.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- introduction/background notes
- what you need
- what to do
- student handout.
Related content
These articles below will help gain a basic knowledge and understanding of ideas and concepts that are fundamental to gases and plasmas.
- Truly chaotic – the gaseous state
- Gaseous atmosphere
- Matter in our world
- Timeline – History of gases and plasmas- this provides a brief historical aspects in the development of our understanding of gases and plasmas.
Useful link
This YouTube video provides an overview of the basics of Boyle's Law, Charles' Law and Gay Lussac's Gas Laws. Includes is an introduction to calculations using each law's equation.
