What is the relationship between the mean free path and the density of gas molecules?
Practice Questions
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Q1
What is the relationship between the mean free path and the density of gas molecules?
Mean free path increases with density
Mean free path decreases with density
Mean free path is independent of density
Mean free path is proportional to the square of density
The mean free path is inversely proportional to the density of gas molecules. As density increases, the mean free path decreases due to more frequent collisions.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: What is the relationship between the mean free path and the density of gas molecules?
Solution: The mean free path is inversely proportional to the density of gas molecules. As density increases, the mean free path decreases due to more frequent collisions.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand what mean free path means. It is the average distance a gas molecule travels before colliding with another molecule.
Step 2: Know what density means. Density refers to how many gas molecules are present in a certain volume.
Step 3: Realize that if there are more gas molecules in a given space (higher density), they are closer together.
Step 4: When gas molecules are closer together, they are more likely to collide with each other.
Step 5: Since collisions happen more often with higher density, the distance a molecule can travel before colliding (mean free path) becomes shorter.
Step 6: Therefore, the mean free path is inversely proportional to the density of gas molecules. This means as density increases, mean free path decreases.
