Boyles' Law

• Boyle's Law

  The pressure exerted by a gas is inversely proportional to the volume occupied by it, given that the mass and the temperature of the gas are constant
• Boyle's Law was developed by the Anglo-Irish chemist, Robert Boyle


  1662
• According to Boyle's law, any change in the volume occupied by a gas will result in a change in the pressure exerted by it as long as the temperature and mass are constant
• The product of the initial pressure and the initial volume of a gas is equal to the product of its final pressure and final volume (at constant temperature and number of moles)
• Kinetic Molecular Theory explanation of Boyle's law


  The pressure of a gas depends on the amount of times per second that the molecules strike the surface of the container. If we compress the gas to a smaller volume, the same number of molecules are now acting against a smaller surface area, so the number striking per unit of area, and thus the pressure, is now greater.
• Boyle's law specifically focused on discussing the relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas at constant temperature and mass
• According to Boyle's law, as the pressure of a gas increases, the volume decreases, and vice versa
• The two variables that must be held constant for Boyle's Law to apply are temperature and amount of gas (moles)
• The formula for Boyle's Law is P1V1 = P2V2, where P2 represents the final pressure
• In 1801, Joseph Gay-Lussac published an article titled "Experimental Researches on Gaseous Bodies" which detailed his findings regarding the behavior of gases under different conditions.