Ideal Gas Law Practice Problems
Physics
PV=NkBT
Name:
Period:
kB=1.38 x 10-23 J/K
1. If you tied off three balloons at equal sizes, then placed one in the freezer, one in the refrigerator, and kept
one at room temperature, which one would be largest the next day? Why?
2. Karen fires a suction dart at Kent in the middle of class. The dart misses, hits the back of his chair, and stays
attached. Explain why the dart ‘sticks’ to the chair.
3. Doug is camping and wants to heat up some beans that are stored in an unopened aluminum can. He
considers dropping the can into the center of the campfire for a few minutes, and then fishing it out with some
tongs. Is this a good idea or a bad idea? Why?
4. After doing the trick with the burning paper to get the egg into the 750 mL bottle, Dr. No realizes he wants to
eat his egg. In order retrieve the egg from inside the bottle, he tips the container upside down so that the egg
rests in the 4.5 cm diameter neck of the container, held up by a net force of 10 N. How many particles must Dr.
No blow into the container (past the egg) in order to make the air inside the container force the egg out?
5. Bryce decides to go off-roading in his Jeep. When he pulls up to the trailhead, he gets ready to let air out of
his 20 L tires so that he achieves better traction on the trails. Before he releases any air, the air in each tire is at
200 kPa and 30 °C. After he releases 1.8 x 1026 particles from one tire, what is the pressure inside that tire?
6. Colleen inflates a 12 cm diameter balloon to a pressure of 110 kPa at body temperature (37 °C). She then
decides to store her precious balloon in the freezer overnight. In the morning, the temperature of the balloon is
0 °C. Assuming the internal pressure is the same as the night before, what is the new volume of the balloon?
7. Michael loads a potato into his potato gun on a sunny 22 °C day. He uses a broom handle to push the potato
down the 2.5 cm radius tube. Before firing his potato gun, Michael sprays propane gas into the 3 L chamber,
and then seals it off. When he twists the ignition switch, the internal temperature rises to 1250 °C.
(a) How many particles are in the chamber after he seals it off?
(b) How much pressure is in the chamber after twisting the ignitions switch?
(c) How much force does the gas in the chamber
exert on the potato?
(d) How much force is the outside air exerting on
the potato?
(e) If there is 50 N of friction and air resistance pushing against the potato as it accelerates down the tube, what
is the net force on the potato just after ignition?
8. Jay Leno decides he needs some ‘laughing gas’ (nitrous oxide), to get more reaction from his audience. He
gets a 12 L tank of nitrogen stored at -20 °C and 500 kPa and a 19 L tank of oxygen stored at 5 °C and 400 kPa
and then connects the two tanks together. The mixed gases comes to equilibrium at -5 °C. What is the pressure
of the mixture?