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The ABC's of gas: Avogadro, Boyle, Charles - Brian Bennett

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How can bottles and balloons help explain the different laws that govern gas? See how Boyle’s Law, Charles’ Law, and Avogadro’s Law help us understand the laws that govern gas properties.

Additional Resources for you to Explore

The gas laws are a great way to practice making conclusions from observations and data collection. Some of the gas experiments are difficult to do, however, without the proper equipment to maintain certain conditions and collect data. However, there are simulated ways to show patterns and trends in gas behavior. Using what you know, evaluate the accuracy of the simulation linked below. Does it calculate the ratios of each laws correctly? Can this be an acceptable substitute for an experiment in some cases? http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/gas-properties
Believe it or not, Avogadro had two major contributions to chemistry, both of them based on his work with gases. You’ve heard about him in this video, with Avogadro’s Law, but he also was one of the first to propose that we could count the atoms in containers of gas. Check out Daniel Dulek’s video on Avogadro’s number. http://ted.cotfw.tk/lessons/daniel-dulek-how-big-is-a-mole-not-the-animal-the-other-one
Check your understanding of the empirical gas laws using this quick quiz: http://ths.sps.lane.edu/chemweb/unit4/problems/gaslaws/
Davidson University has a great collection of virtual chemistry resources. Here is a series of virtual experiments that will let you test each of the empirical gas laws as well as the Ideal Gas Law that is derived from these three. http://www.chm.davidson.edu/vce/gaslaws/index.html

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  • Educator Brian Bennett
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