Applet: Ideal Gas

Need to enable JAVA!

Here you can visualize the ideal gas law,

p·V = n R T

where p is the pressure, V the volume, n the number of moles, T the temperature, and R = 8.31 J/(mol·K) is the ideal gas constant.

Via mouse click you can select which of the three state variables (p, V, T) you want to keep constant. Then the range of values for the other two variables is displayed in the graph. You can then click anywhere within the yellow area, and the corresponding values of the state variables are calculated numerically and diplayed. Now you can either drag the mouse or use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to change one thermodynamic variable and watch the resulting path of the system through the pVT space.

You can also change the number of moles between 1 and 10 by using the up and down arrow keys. Please note: the numerical values are only accurate to 2 digits, due to the finite pixel resolution of the screen.