LAB REPORT

BOYLE’S LAW
CAMILLA PILATI

PURPOSE:
Analyze and prove Boyle’s law.

THEORICAL OVERVIEW:
Boyle’s law states that the pressure of a given quantity of gas varies inversely with its volume at a
constant temperature, hence 𝑃𝑉 = 𝑘.
An evolution of this formula is the ideal gas law, which expose the relation of pressure, volume
and temperature of a gas in the limit of low pressure and high temperatures. An ideal gas is a gas
which is far from its phase change and whose molecules are spread.
In such cases gasses obey the equation: 𝑃𝑉 = 𝑛𝑅𝑇, where 𝑛 is the number of moles of the gas
𝐽
and 𝑅 = 8.314 [ ⁄ (mol ∙ K)], a constant defined as Universal Gas Constant. If we keep 𝑛𝑅𝑇
constant, 𝑃𝑉 = 𝑘, hence the two quantities will present an inverse proportionality.
To prove the inverse proportionality we can also analyze graphically the behavior of the quantities.

MATERIALS AND INSTRUMENTS:

1. Interface
2. Air chamber
3. Sensor that detect Pression and Temperature

piston

interface
air chamber

temperature and pressure sensor

AIR CHAMBER FUNCTIONIN:
To keep if 𝑛 and 𝑇 constant we used the air chamber: this instrument is sealed so that the number
particles inside doesn’t change (𝑛 is constant).
The chamber is made by a piston that you can press or pull to increase or decrease the volume. If
the piston is pulled slowly, the temperature doesn’t not increase significantly thanks to the fact
that the chamber isn’t thermally insulated so while you push the piston, the temperature of the
gas rises, due to the change of pressure and volume, but it contemporaneously dissipates heat
outside of the system, to keep thermal equilibrium.
So, if we are careful during compression and decompression the overall temperature will stay
constant.
The air chamber is also connected with two sensor that detect Pressure and Temperature. These
sensors communicate with an interface linked to the PC where we can see the collected data.

REMARK:
We can base our reasoning on the ideal gas law even if air isn’t an ideal gas thanks to the fact that
nitrogen, its mayor component, was far away from its point of condensation, hence it behave like
an ideal gas.

PROCEDURE:
1. Chose the volumes at which measure the pressures;

2. Push slowly the piston, keeping an eye on the temperature sensor;

3. Reach the volume chosen and write the temperature value down;

4. Repeat the procedure for every volume you choose.

DATA PROCESSING:
V 1/V Error on the 1/V P V*P average half the spread relative error percentage error

40 0,025 0,0006 98,876 3955,04

35 0,029 0,0008 113,192 3961,72
30 0,033 0,0011 130,228 3906,84
25 0,040 0,0016 156,531 3913,28
3960 40 0,01 1%
45 0,022 0,0005 88,011 3960,50
50 0,020 0,0004 79,827 3991,35
55 0,018 0,0003 72,171 3969,41
60 0,017 0,0003 66,447 3986,82
The error on the reciprocal of the volume is given:
1 𝜀1 𝜀𝑉 1 0 1 1
𝜀1⁄ = ( + )= ∙( + )= 2
𝑉 𝑉 𝑉 𝑉 𝑉 𝑉 𝑉 𝑉
The product between Volume and Pressure is constant and so the two quantities are inversely proportional. It’s equal to (3956 ± 39)cm3 ⋅ kPa.

REMARK:
Taking the data we wasn’t able to keep the temperature always constant, in fact the first fourth values were taken at an initial Temperature of
26°, while the last fourth with a final temperature of 37°, anyways we can say that this temperature shift will not attach the experiment : since
we took the measurements in Celsius we need first off all to transform them in Kelvin
𝑇𝑖 = 26° → 273,15𝐾
𝑇𝑓 = 37° → 310,15𝐾
Once we have this values, we need to calculate if the temperature shift is relevant:
∆𝑇 11
𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑓𝑡 = ≈ 𝐾 = 0,04 = 4%
𝑇𝑖 273,15
We divided the ∆𝑇 by the initial temperature, since it is the one that should have been kept
constant. The temperature percentage shift results 4%, a number so small that we can
approximate the situation as isothermal. Since this temperature change doesn’t affect the data.

Pressure and Volume graph

180,000

160,000

140,000

120,000

100,000 P = 3632,2V-0,977
P [𝑘𝑃𝑎]

80,000

60,000

40,000

20,000

0,000
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
V [𝑐𝑚3]

The graph should be an hyperbola, but if we look at the equation we can see that it is not, since
the exponent of the 𝑥 isn’t −1. This happens because excel is not precise enough with this kind of
curves, hence we study the graph between the pressure and the reciprocal of the volume, which is
meant to be a straight line since the two quantities are directly proportional:
1
𝑃 ⋅ 𝑉 = 𝑘 → 𝑘 = 𝑃 ⋅ 𝑉 −1
 Pression and the inverse of the Volume
180,000

160,000
P = 3940,2V-1
140,000

120,000
P [𝑘𝑃𝑎]

100,000

80,000

60,000

40,000

20,000

0,000
0 0,005 0,01 0,015 0,02 0,025 0,03 0,035 0,04 0,045
1/V [𝑐𝑚-3]

This graph is a straight line, this prove that pressure and the inverse of the volume are directly
proportional. On the vertical axes the error bars are too small to be seen, instead the horizontal
error bars increase with the reciprocal of the volume as the effect of relative error on the
reciprocal of volume is greater as it increases.

The equation we obtained is 𝑃 = 3940,2𝑉−1

CONCLUSION:
As you can see, the percentage is so small we can approximate the situation as if they were
isothermal. Since this temperature change doesn’t affect the data.
In conclusion we can state that Volume and Pressure are inversely proportional, since:

ALGEBRICALLY:
Their product is constant.
That constant has been calculated in the table and is: 3956 ± 39 [𝑐𝑚3 ∙ 𝑘𝑃𝑎]
This value is valid only for the specific temperature level, type and quantity of gas that we
were working with.

GRAPHICALLY:
The graph of Volume and Pressure should be an hyperbola, but it isn’t.
Anyways studying the graph between pressure and invers of the volume we can see that it
represents a straight line passing through the origin, which equation is 𝑃 = 3940,2𝑉 −1 .
The constant find before (3956 ± 39 [𝑐𝑚3 ∙ 𝑘𝑃𝑎]) is, considering errors, consistent with
the straight line equation. So Boyle’s law is verified.