rthmjohn Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 I had a little debate with my teacher over this test question: One of the van der waals constants, a or b, can be correlated with the boiling point of a substance. Specify which constant and how it is related to the boiling point. Any comments? I thought it was b (atomic/molecular size), but apparently I was wrong... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thing Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 Lol what a coincidence. I JUST finished the article in WiSci about van der Waals equation about 20 seconds ago. Boiling point of a liquid can be defined as the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the outside pressure upon the liquid. It also means the boiling point is a temperature at which the liquid has enough energy to break free of the forces of attraction between its molecules. In the article I mentioned this, so I'll mention it again. One of the things the ideal gas law missed was the forces of attraction, without which a gas cannot ever become a liquid. So it is because of these forces of attraction (with which a is connected) that the gas can change phases. So knowing theses, you can see why there's a relationship between a and the liquid's boiling point, because the stronger the forces of attraction within the liquid, the higher the boiling point would be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 The article mentioned, with the suitable maths included Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthmjohn Posted January 10, 2006 Author Share Posted January 10, 2006 awesome. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now