What does the term 'partial pressure' refer to in a gas mixture?
Practice Questions
Q1
What does the term 'partial pressure' refer to in a gas mixture?
The pressure exerted by a single gas in a mixture
The total pressure of the gas mixture
The pressure of the gas at absolute zero
The pressure of the gas when it is liquefied
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What does the term 'partial pressure' refer to in a gas mixture?
Step 1: Understand that a gas mixture is made up of different gases, like air which contains oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide.
Step 2: Know that each gas in the mixture has its own pressure, which is the force it exerts on the walls of its container.
Step 3: The term 'partial pressure' refers to the pressure that one specific gas would have if it were the only gas in the container.
Step 4: Imagine if you took just one gas from the mixture and filled the entire container with it at the same temperature; the pressure it would exert is its partial pressure.
Step 5: Remember that the total pressure of the gas mixture is the sum of the partial pressures of all the gases in it.