Consider this molecular-level representation of a gas. If the partial pressure o
ID: 1048441 • Letter: C
Question
Consider this molecular-level representation of a gas. If the partial pressure of the diatomic gas is 0.330 atm, what is the total pressure?
HINT: One way to solve this problem is to find the mole fraction of the diatomic gas. There is a total of 14 independently moving gas particles in this sample. Of those 14 particles, 3 are diatomic. Thus, the mole fraction of the diatomic gas is X = 3/14 = 0.2143. Use the following equation to solve for the total pressure. If you aren't familiar with mole fraction or the formula above, that's ok. Instead, consider that the diatomic gas makes up of 3/14 = 21.43% of the particles. Thus, 0.330 atm is 21.43% of the total pressure.
Explanation / Answer
Pa = xa Ptotal
where Pa is the partial pressure of gas a
xa is the mole fraction of gas a
Ptotal is the total pressure of the system
Pa = xa Ptotal
Pa = 0.33 atm
xa= 0.2143
Ptotal = ?
so, Ptotal = Pa/xa = 0.33/0.2143 = 1.54 atm
So, the total pressure of the system is 1.54 atm