What does the R stand for in the ideal gas law (PV=nRT)?

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What does the R stand for in the ideal gas law (PV=nRT)?

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Answer 1 · 2014-05-25T14:42:57

The units of the universal gas constant $R$ $R$ is derived from equation $P V = n R T$ $PV = nRT$ . It stands for Regnault.

If

the pressure $P$ $P$ is in atmospheres (atm),
the volume $V$ $V$ is in liters (L),
the moles $n$ $n$ is in moles (mol),
and temperature $T$ $T$ is in Kelvin (K),

then $R$ $R$ is in $L \cdot atm/mol \cdot K$ $"L"cdot"atm/mol"cdot"K"$ . $R$ $R$ has the value $0.082057 L \cdot atm/mol \cdot K$ $"0.082057 L"cdot"atm/mol"cdot"K"$ with the above units for the remaining variables.

In other scenarios with pressures of $bars$ $"bars"$ instead, you may also use $0.083145 L \cdot bar/mol \cdot K$ $"0.083145 L"cdot"bar/mol"cdot"K"$ . However, temperature must always be in Kelvin (K), as $R$ $R$ uses units of $K$ $"K"$ .

There is a variation of the ideal gas law that uses the density of the gas with the equation

$P M = D R T$ $PM = DRT$

where $M$ $M$ is the molar mass in $g/mol$ $"g/mol"$ and $D$ $D$ is the density of the gas in $g/L$ $"g/L"$ .

Lastly, this video may help introduce you to the ideal gas law.

I hope this is helpful.

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What does the R stand for in the ideal gas law (PV=nRT)?

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