Question

A gas is placed in a container with a moveable piston. It is then cooled down at constant pressure. What happens? Explain.

Answer 1

Answer:

The piston will move down

Explanation:

We can solve this problem by using Charle's Law, which states that:

"For a fixed mass of an ideal gas kept at constant pressure, the volume of the gas is directly proportional to the absolute temperature of the gas"

Mathematically:

$V\propto T$

where

V is the volume of the gas

T is the absolute temperature of the gas

In this problem, we have a gas placed in a container with a moveable piston. We are also told that the gas is kept at constant pressure, so we can apply Charle's Law.

We are told that the gas is cooled down: this means that its absolute temperature decreases. Therefore, according to Charle's Law, this means that the volume of the gas also decreases: therefore, the piston of the container will move down.