Question

What is the temperature of a 100 liter container having 1 mole of an ideal gas at a pressure of 20 kilopascals?

Answer 1

This can only occur at a temperature of 240.5 kelvin (-32.6 °C).

Explanation:

For an ideal gas, the relationship among pressure, volume, quantity and temperature is the ideal gas law

`PV=nRT`

This essentially tells us that if we specify any three of `P, V, n or T` the fourth is no longer variable, but rather is fixed by the choice of the first three.

Using the values stated in this problem,

`(20)(100)= (1)(8.315)T` where `R=8.315` is the gas constant for the units stated. Therefore

`T=((20)(100))/((1)(8.315)) = 240.5 K`

The only temperature for which the stated conditions could exist would be at a temperature of 240.5 kelvin (-32.6 °C).