Answer:
Attractions between molecules cause a reduction in volume
Explanation:
This is a very important concept of the ideal gas law application. The ideal gas law applies when several conditions are met:
- the size of individual atoms or molecules should be negligible, so that we may assume that the volume of the gas is equal to the volume of a container;
- the attractions between individual atoms should also be negligible, so that on average the gas fills the whole container and the volume of a container would be equal to the volume of the gas.
Therefore, the ideal gas law applies best in scenarios where we have a high temperature and a low pressure (or large volume). The larger the volume gets, the more negligible is the size of a molecule compared to the size of a container.
Speaking of temperature, the greater the temperature, the higher the kinetic energy of the gas molecules, so that the average distances between them increase and the attraction forces are minimized.
However, having a low temperature would cause the molecules of a gas move slower and attraction forces would be more significant due to lower average distances between the molecules.
