Pressure-temperature Law
A rigid sealed cylinder holds a gas at 2.0 \times 10^5 Pa and 300 K; find the new pressure when the temperature is raised to 450 K at constant volume.
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Solution
3.0×105Pa
At constant volume the pressure of a fixed amount of ideal gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature, a result known as Gay-Lussac's law: T1P1=T2P2. This follows from PV=nRT with V and n held fixed, and microscopically it reflects that hotter molecules strike the walls both harder and more frequently. Solving for the new pressure, P2=P1T1T2=2.0×105×300450=3.0×105 Pa. The temperatures must be expressed in kelvin for the proportionality to hold correctly. The value 1.33×105 Pa inverts the temperature ratio. The value 4.5×105 Pa mistakenly multiplies by an incorrect ratio arising from a celsius-to-kelvin confusion. The value 2.5×105 Pa wrongly adds a fixed increment rather than scaling proportionally. This is the NCERT pressure–temperature law for an isochoric process, derived directly from the ideal gas equation and important for understanding why sealed containers can burst when heated near a flame and why pressure cookers and aerosol cans carry temperature warnings. As a plausibility check, raising the temperature by 50 % (from 300 K to 450 K) should raise the pressure by the same 50 %, taking 2.0×105 Pa to 3.0×105 Pa, exactly matching our computed result.
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About This Question
- Subject
- physics
- Chapter
- kinetic theory of gases
- Topic
- pressure-temperature law
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Year
- 2025
Solution
Correct Answer:
3.0×105Pa
At constant volume the pressure of a fixed amount of ideal gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature, a result known as Gay-Lussac's law: T1P1=T2P2. This follows from PV=nRT with V and n held fixed, and microscopically it reflects that hotter molecules strike the walls both harder and more frequently. Solving for the new pressure, P2=P1T1T2=2.0×105×300450=3.0×105 Pa. The temperatures must be expressed in kelvin for the proportionality to hold correctly. The value 1.33×105 Pa inverts the temperature ratio. The value 4.5×105 Pa mistakenly multiplies by an incorrect ratio arising from a celsius-to-kelvin confusion. The value 2.5×105 Pa wrongly adds a fixed increment rather than scaling proportionally. This is the NCERT pressure–temperature law for an isochoric process, derived directly from the ideal gas equation and important for understanding why sealed containers can burst when heated near a flame and why pressure cookers and aerosol cans carry temperature warnings. As a plausibility check, raising the temperature by 50 % (from 300 K to 450 K) should raise the pressure by the same 50 %, taking 2.0×105 Pa to 3.0×105 Pa, exactly matching our computed result.
This medium difficulty physics question is from the chapter kinetic theory of gases, covering the topic of pressure-temperature law. It appeared in the 2025 exam.
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