Knowing the content of Gay-Lussac's law allows us to understand how the pressure in a vehicle's tires varies depending on whether they are exposed to low (cold) or high (heat) temperatures.
Gay-Lussac's law is a valid content suitable for ideal gases , while both temperature and pressure are required to be moderate and there is a low gas density to be met with great precision when dealing with real gases .
This postulate, named after a prominent French physicist and chemist named Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac, states that the pressure and temperature of a gas are directly proportional when there is a fixed volume of gaseous material.
According to the discovery of this expert, if you work with a certain amount of gas and increase its temperature , as the volume does not vary, an increase in pressure is evident. In this context, the quotient derived from pressure and the value linked to absolute temperature is constant .
History of Gay-Lussac's law
As has been documented, the history of the Gay-Lussac law dates back to 1802 . At that time, the French scientist formulated the postulate that indicates that the expansion or dilation of a gas , if the pressure level is conserved, is proportional to its absolute temperature . He was also able to establish that, if the volume of the gas is constant, then there is a proportional increase in its pressure .
Seasons later he made a rediscovery of an old experimental statement on volumes made by Jacques Charles . By publishing this information, Gay-Lussac was associated as the author of the law, but in truth it was his colleague Jacques who was responsible for the so-called Charles law , which describes the expansion of a gas as a function of the increase in temperature or the reduction of the volume in case of a decreasing thermal mark.
We must not lose sight of the fact that, around 1856 and 1857 , first August Karl Krönig and then Rudolf Clausius promoted the most primitive gas laws . In what was baptized as the ideal gas law, the universal gas constant appeared for the first time, leaving behind the numerous specific gas constants that gained prominence from the hand of Dmitri Mendeleev .
If heat is applied to a pressure cooker with water inside, the temperature rises and thus the pressure inside the container increases but the volume remains constant, as can be seen from Gay-Lussac's law.
Relationship with other laws
Gay-Lussac's law is complemented and linked to several other laws , opening up spaces for comparisons and integrations.
By focusing attention on the ideal gas law and analyzing what the equation of state for an ideal gas includes and what it consists of, concepts such as kinetic energy and the laws of conservation of momentum gain notoriety. It is also known that Émile Clapeyron 's deductions based on Charles' law and Boyle's law were key to consolidating the law of ideal gases based on the links between volume , pressure and temperature .
As part of the set of gas laws, the Boyle-Mariotte law is pointed out (which accounts for the proportionally inverse relationship between the volume presented by a certain mass of gas subjected to a temperature that remains constant and the pressure of said gas ), to Charles's law (focused on volume and absolute temperature ) and to Gay-Lussac's law . Graham's law of effusion and diffusion , as well as Dalton's law of partial pressures and Avogadro's law are also useful when working with gases .
The Kelvin scale, used to measure absolute temperature, together with the Celsius scale (degree Celsius, with caloric intensity equivalent to that which characterizes the kelvin) are thermometric units in force.
Examples of Gay-Lussac law
In everyday life we can take advantage of the content of Gay-Lussac's law in multiple circumstances, both on a theoretical and practical level.
In winter, to detail a situation that is very recognizable to most people, it is common for a vehicle's tires to lose pressure (therefore, deflate) as a result of the cold (that is, low temperatures ). A similar phenomenon occurs with an inflated balloon exposed to the heat of the sun, since when the air inside gains temperature and the pressure increases, the balloon begins to expand.
When heating water (or another liquid) using a closed pressure cooker, steam arises and, in this context, the gas molecules collide against the walls of said container as a result of the increase in temperature . Along with heating and frequent and strong molecular collisions , an increase in the pressure exerted is observed: if the temperature is lowered, on the contrary, then the pressure will be lower.
This law is commonly used, to add precision, in the fields of chemistry and physics to maneuver with gases and store them safely in order to prevent them from contracting or expanding when exposed to a specific temperature .
It is a great tool to consider, meanwhile, when carrying out atmospheric studies , engineering projects, tests in the pharmaceutical industry and when designing products or pressure equipment.