Q.1 mole of H2 gas is contained in a box of volume V = 1.00 m3 at T = 300K. The gas is heated to a temperature of T = 3000K and the gas gets converted to a gas of hydrogen atoms. The final pressure would be (considering all gases to be ideal)
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The Ideal Gas Law: From Intuition to Equation
Imagine you're blowing up a balloon. You feel the resistance as you push more air in. The balloon gets tighter, harder to squeeze. Now imagine leaving that balloon in a hot car — it might even pop. Or take it to the top of a mountain, and it suddenly looks half-deflated.
These everyday experiences are telling you something deep about gases: their pressure, volume, temperature, and the amount of gas inside are all connected. The Ideal Gas Law is the single equation that captures that connection.
The Four Players
Every gas has four measurable properties:
- Pressure (P) — how hard the gas pushes on its container (like the tightness of the balloon)
- Volume (V) — how much space the gas occupies (the size of the balloon)
- Temperature (T) — how hot the gas is (measured in Kelvin, not Celsius)
- Amount (n) — how many gas particles are present (measured in moles)
The Ideal Gas Law says: if you know any three of these, you can calculate the fourth. It's the master relationship.
The Precise Statement
PV=nRT
Where R is the universal gas constant. Its value depends on the units you use, but the most common one for exams is:
R=0.0821 mol⋅KL⋅atm
This means: if pressure is in atmospheres (atm), volume in litres (L), amount in moles (mol), and temperature in Kelvin (K), then R=0.0821.
Temperature must be in Kelvin. Never plug Celsius into this equation. To convert: K=°C+273.15. For most exam problems, using K=°C+273 is fine.
Why It Makes Physical Sense
The equation PV=nRT isn't just a random formula — it's a compact summary of three simpler laws that were discovered earlier:
- Boyle's Law (pressure-volume relationship): At constant n and T, P∝1/V. Squeeze a gas into half the volume, pressure doubles.
- Charles's Law (volume-temperature relationship): At constant n and P, V∝T. Heat a gas, it expands.
- Avogadro's Law (amount-volume relationship): At constant P and T, V∝n. More gas particles need more space.
The Ideal Gas Law combines all three into one clean statement.
What "Ideal" Means
Real gases don't always follow this law perfectly. At very high pressures or very low temperatures, gas particles start interacting with each other and taking up significant space themselves. The "ideal" gas is a simplified model where:
- Particles have negligible volume
- No forces act between particles (except during collisions)
- Collisions are perfectly elastic …
The key idea is that heating dissociates each H₂ molecule into two H atoms, doubling the number of particles. For an ideal gas at constant volume, pressure is proportional to nT.
Step 1: Initial conditions: ni=1 mole of H₂, Ti=300 K.
Initial pressure: Pi=VniRTi.
Step 2: Final conditions: each H₂ molecule becomes 2 H atoms, so nf=2 moles. Final temperature Tf=3000 K.
Final pressure: Pf=VnfRTf. …
The key idea is that heating H₂ from 300 K to 3000 K dissociates each molecule into two atoms, doubling the number of moles. Combined with the tenfold temperature increase, the ideal gas law gives a final pressure 20 times the initial pressure.
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Start with the ideal gas law. For an ideal gas, PV=nRT. Initially, we have 1 mole of H₂ gas at Ti=300 K and volume V=1.00 m3. The initial pressure is Pi=VniRTi.
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What happens when the gas is heated? The temperature rises to Tf=3000 K. But more importantly, the H₂ molecules dissociate into hydrogen atoms: H2→2H. Each mole of H₂ becomes 2 moles of H atoms. So the number of moles changes from ni=1 to nf=2.
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Apply the ideal gas law to the final state. The final pressure is Pf=VnfRTf. Since the volume V and the gas constant R are unchanged, we can compare directly:
PiPf=niTinfTf=1×3002×3000=3006000=20.
So Pf=20Pi. …
Pure proportional-reasoning shortcut: at fixed volume, P∝nT, so there's no need to write PV=nRT twice — just multiply the two independent scale factors. Dissociation doubles the particle count (n: ×2), and the given heating multiplies temperature by 3000/300=10 (T: ×10). These are independent multiplicative effects on P, so the combined factor is simply 2×10=20 — option (d). Thi …
- KEAM 2026Set eng-2026-04194 marksMCQQ.Experimental P-V curves and theoretically predicted P-V curves are in good agreement at (A) high temperature and high pressure (B) high temperature and low pressure (C) low temperature and high pressure (D) low temperature and atmospheric pressure (E) low temperature and low pressure
›Reveal solutionSolution
Ideal-gas behaviour holds when molecules are far apart and interactions are negligible — high temperature, low pressure.
The theoretical (ideal-gas) P-V curves assume negligible intermolecular forces and negligible molecular volume. These assumptions are best satisfied when the gas is dilute and energetic, i.e. at …
- KEAM 2026Set eng-2026-04204 marksMCQQ.A gas has pressure 2.76×105 Pa at 400 K. If Boltzmann constant k=1.38×10−23 JK−1, its number density is (A) 5.5×1027 (B) 5.0×1027 (C) 6.5×1027 (D) 6.5×1025 (E) 5.0×1025
›Reveal solutionSolution
Ideal gas P=nkT⇒n=P/(kT)=5.0×1025 per m³.
Compute.
n=kTP=(1.38×10−23)(400)2.76×105.
Denominator =1.38×400×10−23=552×10−23=5.52×10−21. …
- KEAM 2026Set eng-2026-04224 marksMCQQ.If f represents the intermolecular force between molecules and V, is the volume occupied by the gas molecules, then at high pressure and at low temperatures, the gas shows large deviation from the ideal behaviour because the fact that (A) f is negligible (B) both f and V are negligible (C) V is negligible (D) f is appreciable and V is negligible (E) f is appreciable and V is not negligible
›Reveal solutionSolution
Real gases deviate because, when compressed and cooled, both attractive forces and the finite molecular volume matter.
At high pressure molecules are close together, so their own finite volume V can no longer be neglected relative to the container.
At low temperature the intermolecular attractive force f becomes appreciable. …
- KEAM 2026Set eng-2026-04224 marksMCQQ.A cylinder contains 18 moles of oxygen at pressure of 15 atmosphere at temperature 300 K. If the pressure reduces to 9 atmospheres by the withdrawal of 6 moles of oxygen, then the temperature of the cylinder will be reduced to (A) 200 K (B) 230 K (C) 270 K (D) 220 K (E) 250 K
›Reveal solutionSolution
Use PV=nRT at constant volume: P/(nT) is constant.
Initial: n1=18, P1=15 atm, T1=300 K. Final: n2=12, P2=9 atm. …
- KEAM 2025Set eng-2025-04234 marksMCQQ.A cylindrical vessel contains 16 kg of gas at a pressure of 1 atmosphere. A certain amount of gas is taken out and the pressure of gas in the vessel becomes 0.75 atmosphere. The amount of gas taken out is (A) 2.5 kg (B) 4 kg (C) 7.5 kg (D) 8.25 kg (E) 10 kg
›Reveal solutionSolution
The amount of gas taken out is 4 kg.
Concept and Intuition
At constant temperature and volume, the mass of gas in the vessel is proportional to its pressure (from PV=nRT, with n∝ mass). Reducing the pressure to 0.75 atm reduces the mass proportionally.
Step-by-Step Solution
- Mass ∝ pressure at constant T,V.
- Remaining mass =16×10.75=12kg. …
- KEAM 2025Set eng-2025-04254 marksMCQQ.The product of the pressure P and volume V of an ideal gas in a container is related to the translational part of the internal energy, E as (A) E (B) E (C) 32E (D) 3E (E) 2E
›Reveal solutionSolution
From kinetic theory the translational internal energy is E=23nRT=23PV, hence PV=32E.
Translational (kinetic) internal energy of an ideal gas:
E=23nRT.
Ideal gas equation:
PV=nRT. …
- KEAM 2025Set eng-2025-04264 marksMCQQ.The number of molecules contained in the gas of mass M is (Mo - molar mass, NA - Avogadro's number) (A) (MoM)NA1 (B) (MMo)NA (C) (MMo)NA (D) (MMo)NA1 (E) (MoM)NA
›Reveal solutionSolution
The number of moles is mass divided by molar mass, and multiplying by Avogadro's number gives the number of molecules: N=(MoM)NA.
Step 1 — number of moles:
n=molar massmass=MoM …
- KEAM 2025Set eng-2025-04284 marksMCQQ.The statement, the total pressure of a mixture of ideal gases is the sum of partial pressures, is called as (A) Boyle's law (B) Charles' law (C) Dalton's law (D) Perfect gas law (E) Law of equipartition
›Reveal solutionSolution
Total pressure = sum of partial pressures is Dalton's law.
Dalton's law of partial pressures states that for a mixture of non-reacting ideal gases, the total pressure equals the sum of the partial pressures each gas would exert alone:
P=P1+P2+⋯ …
- KEAM 2025Set eng-2025-04284 marksMCQQ.For an ideal gas at temperature T having the total number of molecules N, the product of the pressure and volume, PV is equal to (kB is the Boltzmann constant) (A) 2NT (B) KBNT (C) KBTN (D) KBNT (E) NT
›Reveal solutionSolution
Kinetic-theory form of the ideal gas law: PV=NkBT.
Writing the ideal gas law with the total number of molecules N and the Boltzmann constant kB (where kB=R/NA):
PV=NkBT. …
- KEAM 2025Set eng-2025-04294 marksMCQQ.The condition for real gases to obey the ideal gas equation PV = RT is that the gases should be at (A) high pressure (B) low temperature (C) low pressure and low temperature (D) high pressure and low temperature (E) low pressure and high temperature
›Reveal solutionSolution
Ideal behaviour requires negligible intermolecular forces and volume: low pressure and high temperature.
Why low pressure. At low pressure the gas is dilute, so the volume of the molecules is negligible compared to the container and intermolecular interactions are minimal. …
- KEAM 2024Set eng-2024-06064 marksMCQQ.All real gases behave like an ideal gas at (A) high pressure and low temperature (B) low temperature and low pressure (C) high pressure and high temperature (D) at all temperatures and pressures (E) low pressure and high temperature
›Reveal solutionSolution
Real gases approach ideal behaviour at low pressure and high temperature.
The ideal-gas model assumes negligible molecular volume and negligible intermolecular forces. At low pressure the molecules are far apart so their own volume is unimportant, and at high temperature the kinetic energy dominates over intermolecular attractions. Under these conditions the devi …
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