Absolute Zero and The Ideal Gas Law

Introduction
Combine average kinetic and potential energy of molecules of any substance is termed as
temperature. Pressure is known as an average force of gas molecules that is exerted on the walls
of container. Absolute zero is termed as temperature at the pressure exerted by gas is considered
as zero.
The relation for absolute temperature is related to pressure and volume in terms of ideal gas law
is given as:
PV =nRT (1)

Where,

n = number of moles of gas

R = is the ideal gas constant

Keeping the volume constant, the relation can be simplified into a relation between temperature and
pressure that is known as Gay-Lussac’s law:

T =cP (2)

c is a constant. We above relation is used during this lab.

Prelab

1. Manipulating equations 1 and 2 to obtain new equation for the constant c in terms of V, n and R.

If PV = nRT and T = cP

PV = nRcP

V = nRc

c = V/nR

2. With the help of Equation 2, the temperature at which the absolute pressure of the gas is zero can be
determined.

Apparatus
 Pasco PS-2146 Absolute Pressure

 Temperature Sensor

 Absolute zero apparatus

  Hot plate

 Computer with interface and software

 Beakers

 Calipers hot water

 Room temp water

 Ice water

Procedure
For sake of data collection, the experiment is repeated for three times for each run having a
various amount of gas inside the sphere. By submerging the sphere into water bath (hot, cold or
room temperature), the amount of gas inside the sphere is changed. After that then sealing the
sphere off by connecting to the sensor using the white pressure coupler. After the amount of gas
is settled once, the pressure in the sphere changed with temperature is measured by submerging
the sphere into different baths.
 With the sphere unconnected from the pressure sensor, sphere is submerged in ice water
and we waited until unless the temperature stabilized so that the amount of gas (moles) in
the sphere was set at this cold temperature, and then connected the white plastic pressure
coupler.
 For this run (“Cold Run”), we kept the pressure sensor connected so the amount of gas
inside remained constant.
 Once the pressure and temperature were stable, we recorded the reading.
 We filled the metal container 3∕4 full with water and heat it up. While waiting for the
water to heat up, we filled the third container with about 400mL of room temperature
water, leaving enough room to submerge the sphere.
 We put the sphere into the room temperature water and completely submerged it.
 6. Now take a reading in warm water. (To get warm water, we put about 100mL of the
hot water from the metal container into the container with the room
temperature water.)
 Now, we put the sphere into the hot water and took a fourth reading.
 We start a new run and put the sphere in the hot water and equalize the pressure by
disconnecting and then reconnecting the pressure coupler while in the hot water. This
makes the sphere have a different amount of gas in it (this was the “Hot Run”). After
reconnecting the coupler, and waiting until the pressure and temperature have stabilized,
we pressed Keep.
 As we did previously, we record the values for the other three baths (cold, room temp,
and warm).
 Finally, the procedure is repeated for a third Room Temp Run by disconnecting the
pressure coupler and letting the sphere sit in the room temp bath until it is stable. Then
 we reconnected the coupler and measured the pressure and temperature for all
four baths.

Data, Calculation and Fitting
XCold Run
Cold Room Warm Hot
Temp
Pressure 101.40 109.019 119.72 129.34
1 8 7
temp 3.65 22.93 51.29 77.3

Room Temp
Cold Room Warm Hot
Temp
Pressure 93.511 100.748 108.53 124.60
6 8
temp 9.02 23.27 46.25 93.14

Hot
Cold Room Warm Hot
Temp
Pressure 75.727 82.6 88.356 101.35
1
temp 7.21 26.59 46.75 92.96

Questions
1- At absolute zero (-273oC).

2- No “real gas” can’t result in pressure changes vs that predicted by the Ideal Gas Law.

3-
Average Absolute Zero = 271.22 C = 271.22 +273.15 = 1.93 K
Diameter of sphere: 9.9 cm
Volume of sphere: 508cm3 = 0.000508 m3
Radius of sphere: 4.95 cm
This measurement is more than the actual volume of the sphere because metal takes up
more space.
The relation between temperature and pressure is that when temperature increases, the
pressure also increases.

Percentage Error = (Accepted value measure value)/ accepted *100

 (273.15 271.22)/273.15* 100 = 0.7%

4- Absolute temperature (0ok) is that temperature at which molecular energy is minimum

almost zero.

Discussions
We realize that is not physically possible to reach absolute zero, we can measure the pressure
as we vary the temperature of the gas at constant volume. Our average absolute zero value
for the three runs was 271.22K with a percentage of error of 0.71%. So, analyzing the results
and the percentage of error We obtain satisfactory results, because our percentage of error
was considerably small.