# kinetic theory of gas

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is it possible to know how many impacts can a gas make with a certain area of wall using a kinetic theory of gas?

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I don't know what "kinetic theory of gas" is (I'm usually not very good with names of concepts). But if you know the velocities of the particles in a given direction and the density of the gas, then that looks like a straightforward thing to calculate.

how really??

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If the collisions are elastic, as they are under kinetic theory, the momentum change is 2p = 2mv for each wall collision.

$F = \Delta{p}/\Delta{t}$

You need to figure the number of collisions per unit time and that will give you the force. Kinetic theory/ideal gas law equations and a little geometry can get you the momentum information and the collision rate.

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Timo, how good are you with google?

Pretty firm, though perhaps not as good as with Wikipedia, for which I have written a few physics articles. One thing you learn in writing Wikipedia articles is that most physics terms are not as sharply defined as the average stamp collector may think. I believe understanding how the velocity distribution in a gas, its density and the number, and the resulting hit frequency on the container walls interconnect is much more important than knowing what the "kinetic theory of gas" is in detail. Even if that means having to use additional physics basics like p=mv to transfer from a kinetic theory to a dynamic one, first.
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is it possible to know how many impacts can a gas make with a certain area of wall using a kinetic theory of gas?

I imagine an estimate of impacts per surface area, per unit of time, based upon the kind of gas, pressure of the gas, its temperature, containment material and configuration, atomic/ molecular structure, etc. could be made.

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Edited by pantheory

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