Boyle's Law
Discovered by Robert Boyle in 1662. On the continent of
Europe, this law is attributed to Edme Mariotte, therefore those
counties tend to call this law by his name. Mariotte, however,
did not publish his work until 1676.
His law gives the relationship between pressure and volume if
temperature and amount are held constant.
If the volume of a container is increased, the pressure
decreases.
If the volume of a container is decreased, the pressure
increases.
Why?
Suppose the volume is increased. This means gas molecules
have farther to go and they will impact the container walls less
often per unit time. This means the gas pressure will be less
because there are less molecule impacts per unit time.
If the volume is decreased, the gas molecules have a shorter
distance to go, thus striking the walls more often per unit time.
This results in pressure being increased because there are more
molecule impacts per unit time.
The mathematical form of Boyle's Law is: PV = k
This means that the pressure-volume product will always be
the same value if the temperature and amount remain constant.
This relationship was what Boyle discovered.
This is an inverse mathematical relationship. As one quantity
goes up in the value, the other goes down.
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