Gas Laws

Syllabus tag: KCSE | Physics | Form 3 | Topic 30 Gas Laws

Lesson objectives

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

• State and apply Boyle's law, Charles' law and the pressure law.
• Explain the laws using the kinetic theory.
• Apply the general gas equation and use the kelvin scale correctly.
• Describe the experiments verifying each law and their applications.

Summary

Boyle's law: at constant temperature, pressure is inversely proportional to volume, so PV = constant. Charles' law: at constant pressure, volume is proportional to absolute temperature, so V ÷ T = constant. Pressure law: at constant volume, P ÷ T = constant. Combined: PV ÷ T = constant, with T always in kelvin.