Define the properties of an ideal gas?
1 Answer
The properties of IDEAL gases are that:
- they are compressible
- they are always in motion, colliding elastically within a container
- they take the shape of the container
- they behave inertly
The IDEAL gases are compressible in the sense that because they have so much energy, it makes it easy to force them to move in an inward direction, thereby compressing them.
The IDEAL gases are always in motion, colliding elastically with the container, meaning that they lose no energy after collisions and thus can keep moving.
The IDEAL gases take the shape of the container as a result of their compressibility, and so the volume of the container can be assumed to be the overall volume of the gas(es) inside.
The IDEAL gases behave inertly, meaning that they are assumed to not react with each other. This keeps things simple, so that their properties can be studied in the absence of complications where the gases could have been used up in gas reactions.
