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Topic: Gas Problems Reality Check  (Read 3575 times)

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Offline OTI

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Gas Problems Reality Check
« on: December 03, 2015, 09:23:21 PM »
I'm not exactly asking for help, but instead I want to check if my answer is realistic.

So I have about 1.069... moles of CO2 in a 500 mL sealed container at 37 o Celsius.

Would a pressure of about 54 atm be plausible?

It sounds kinda ridiculous to me, but I read somewhere that 1 mol of gas takes up 22.4 liters of space.

Offline mikasaur

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Re: Gas Problems Reality Check
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2015, 09:31:07 PM »
Looks like you're off by some orders of magnitude. Double check your calculations.
Or you could, you know, Google it.

Offline Corribus

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Re: Gas Problems Reality Check
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2015, 09:52:59 PM »
That appears to be about what the ideal gas law predicts if my back of the envelope (literally) math is accurate.

54 atm isn't really that high of a pressure, about 800 psi. Far more than that in most new carbon dioxide cylinders. And 1 mole of gas is quite a bit.

To see if it sounds reasonable, start with your rule of thumb that 1 mole of gas occupies roughly 20 liters of volume at STP, which is ~1 atm and 273 K (O C). Call the temperature a wash just because this is an order of magnitude estimation. If you scrunch 1 mole of gas down to 0.5 L, that's a factor about 40 compression. Your pressure increases 40x, therefore, that's 40 atm. It's going to be a little higher because of the temperature and slightly more than 1 mole, so 54 atm seems plausible.

Of course, this is all assuming the gas is ideal under these conditions. :)
What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?  - Richard P. Feynman

Offline Enthalpy

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Re: Gas Problems Reality Check
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2015, 06:21:28 PM »
Realistic, yes... Accurate, not quite, because these conditions are near the critical point: 65bar and 304K=+31°C. So the pressure is clearly less than what an ideal gas would give. Source: Air Liquide's encyclopedia of gases.

Offline DrCMS

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Re: Gas Problems Reality Check
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2015, 04:15:30 AM »
Looks like you're off by some orders of magnitude. Double check your calculations.

No, you should check your calculations.

Offline Vidya

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Re: Gas Problems Reality Check
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2015, 06:24:38 AM »
1 mole is 22.4 L at zero degree C and this is at 37 degree C ...I do not think there is any error in the answer.

Offline mikasaur

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Re: Gas Problems Reality Check
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2015, 01:39:39 PM »
Looks like you're off by some orders of magnitude. Double check your calculations.

No, you should check your calculations.

D'oh. It appears you're right! >_<
Or you could, you know, Google it.

Offline Enthalpy

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Re: Gas Problems Reality Check
« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2015, 05:57:33 PM »
1 mole is 22.4 L at zero degree C and this is at 37 degree C ...I do not think there is any error in the answer.

Yes there is, because this gas is far from perfect.

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