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Romashka comments on Stupid Questions March 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: Gondolinian 03 March 2015 11:37PM

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Comment author: Romashka 19 March 2015 02:04:50PM 0 points [-]

Is there any effect that chemical composition of a gase has on its behaviour when it is heated/cooled (in the range where it is a stable substance and not a liquid)? (just popped into my head all of a sudden, sorry.)

Comment author: polymathwannabe 19 March 2015 02:49:10PM 1 point [-]

This?

"Since the ideal gas law neglects both molecular size and intermolecular attractions, it is most accurate for monatomic gases at high temperatures and low pressures. The neglect of molecular size becomes less important for lower densities, i.e. for larger volumes at lower pressures, because the average distance between adjacent molecules becomes much larger than the molecular size. The relative importance of intermolecular attractions diminishes with increasing thermal kinetic energy, i.e., with increasing temperatures. More detailed equations of state, such as the van der Waals equation, account for deviations from ideality caused by molecular size and intermolecular forces."

Comment author: Romashka 23 March 2015 08:08:02PM 0 points [-]

Thank you, yes. (I always kinda hope they would include some links to experimentally determined parameters for at least some gases, though; would be nice to be able to have a layman's shortcut:)