Ideal vs. Real Gases : Quick question

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

orangeblue

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
895
Reaction score
126
Real gases vs. ideal gases

you can't tell by looking an chemical formulae ie. CH4 or Cl2 which gas is ideal or real, correct?
It's just based on the assumptions you use (ie. little to no volume for ideal gases) that make it ideal.
In reality, all gases are real -gases.
 
Unless it is stated in the passage that the experiment is done under very low temperature/very high pressure, you can assume it is an ideal gas.
 
No gas is truly, completely ideal (and their degree of "non-ideality" vastly differs per chemical species), but you may assume a gas is ideal if a problem tells you it is ideal.

FYI: Assuming a gas is ideal means you are assuming that the molecules are far away from each other and do not interact (this usually only occurs at extremely low pressures or very high temperatures). Thus, their properties can be adequately calculated using the Ideal Gas Law.
 
Top