KINETIC THEORY

The kinetic theory was developed in the nineteenth century by Maxwell, Boltzmann and others. It has been remarkably successful. It gives a molecular interpretation of pressure and temperature of a gas, and is consistent with gas laws and Avogadros hypothesis. The average distance a molecule can travel without colliding is called the mean free path. The mean free path, in gases, is of the order of thousands of angstroms. BEHAVIOUR OF GASES Gases at low pressures and high temperatures much above that at which they liquefy (or solidify) approximately satisfy a simple relation between their pressure, temperature and volume given for the ideal gases. We can write K = N k . Observation tells us that this k is same for all gases. It is called Boltzmann constant and is denoted by k
B

. Kinetic theory justifies this Avogadro hypothesis, PV = kB NT or P = kB nT where n is the number density, i.e. number of molecules per unit volume. kB is the Boltzmann constant introduced above. A gas that satisfies Eq. (13.3) exactly at all pressures and temperatures is defined to be an ideal gas. An ideal gas is a simple theoretical model of a gas. No real gas is truly ideal.

Real gases approach ideal gas behaviour at low pressures and high temperatures.

Daltons law of partial pressures.