Question

Consider four sealed, rigid containers with the following volumes: 50 mL, 100 mL, 250 mL, and 500 mL. If each of these contains .25 moles of helium gas at standard temperature, which container would have the greatest pressure?

Answer 1

First, we assume that helium behaves as an ideal gas such that the ideal gas law is applicable.
                                     PV = nRT
where P is pressure, V is volume, n is number of moles, R is universal gas constant, and T is temperature. From the equation, if n, R, and T are constant, there is an inverse relationship between P and V. From the given choices, the container with the greatest pressure would be the 50 mL.