# A tank of gas has partial pressures of nitrogen and oxygen equal to 1.61 xx 10^4 "kPa" and 4.34 xx 10^5 "kPa", respectively. What is the total pressure of the tank?

Jun 12, 2017

$4.50 \cdot {10}^{5}$ $\text{kPa}$

#### Explanation:

The idea here is that when the volume and the temperature of a gaseous mixture are kept constant, the total pressure of the mixture is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of its gaseous components $\to$ this is known as Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures.

In your case, you know that the mixture contains nitrogen gas, ${\text{N}}_{2}$, and oxygen gas, ${\text{O}}_{2}$, which means that the total pressure of the mixture will be

P_"total" = P_ ("N" _ 2) + P_ ("O"_ 2)

Plug in your values to find

${P}_{\text{total" = 1.61 * 10^4color(white)(.)"kPa" + 4.34 * 10^5color(white)(.)"kPa}}$

P_"total" = color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)(4.50 * 10^5color(white)(.)"kPa")))

The answer is rounded to two decimal places, the number of decimal places you have for your values.