Which Gas Law is involved when a balloon pops after sitting on it?

1 Answer

Boyle's Law.

Explanation:

The primary ideal gas law involved in this event is
#p*V = const#
Here #p# is a pressure and #V# is a volume of an ideal gas.
When you sit on a balloon you decrease the volume . Therefore, the pressure must increase and, when it is too high, the balloon cannot hold it anymore and pops.

The above law is named Boyle's Law. It holds if the temperature of an ideal gas remains constant. When the temperature changes as well, the following two ideal gas laws are involved.

Gay-Lussac's Law (if the volume occupied by gas does not change)
#p/T = const#

Combined Ideal Gas Law (if all three characteristics of an ideal gas, its temperature , volume and pressure change)
#(p*V)/T = const#

Very nice animation here: http://w3.shorecrest.org/~Lisa_Peck/Physics/syllabus/phases/gases/gaswp03/ashleigh/henry_ashleigh.html