📚 Learning Guide
Ideal Gas Law
hard

When considering a real gas at high pressure, which of the following statements best explains the observed deviation from ideal gas behavior?

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Choose the Best Answer

A

The volume occupied by gas molecules becomes significant compared to the total volume.

B

The temperature of the gas increases significantly.

C

The gas molecules move faster than predicted by the Kinetic Molecular Theory.

D

The intermolecular forces become negligible.

Understanding the Answer

Let's break down why this is correct

Answer

When a gas is compressed to high pressure, the molecules are forced close together and the space each molecule occupies becomes significant compared with the total volume, so the assumption that the gas occupies no space fails. At the same time, attractive forces between molecules pull them slightly together and repulsive forces push them apart, so the pressure is no longer simply the result of collisions with the walls. Because of these size and force effects, the real gas pressure is lower than the ideal gas prediction for attractive forces and higher for repulsive forces, causing a systematic deviation. For example, at 10 atmospheres a nitrogen sample shows a lower pressure than the ideal gas law would predict, illustrating the combined effect of finite molecular size and intermolecular forces.

Detailed Explanation

At high pressure, the space each gas molecule actually uses is not tiny. Other options are incorrect because Pressure alone does not raise temperature; Speed of molecules depends on temperature, not how tightly packed they are.

Key Concepts

Real Gas Deviations
Pressure (P)
Kinetic Molecular Theory
Topic

Ideal Gas Law

Difficulty

hard level question

Cognitive Level

understand

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