Question

There are two identical containers of gas at the same temperature and pressure, one containing argon and the other neon. What is the ratio of the rms speed of the argon atoms to that of the neon atoms?

Answer 1

Answer:

0.7107

Explanation:

The root mean square velocity is the square root of the average of the square of the velocity and it can be calculated using the following expression.

$v_{rms}=\sqrt{\frac{3RT}{M} }$

where,

$v_{rms}$: root mean square velocity

R: ideal gas constant

T: absolute temperature

M: molar mass of the gas

The ratio of the rms speed of the argon atoms to that of the neon atoms is:

$\frac{v_{rms}(Ar)}{v_{rms}(Ne)}=\frac{\sqrt{\frac{3RT}{M(Ar)}}}{\sqrt{\frac{3RT}{M(Ne)} }} =\sqrt{\frac{M(Ne)}{M(Ar)}} =\sqrt{\frac{20.18g/mol}{39.95g/mol} } =0.7107$