Question

If you measure the mass of a sample of an unknown gas, and also measure the volume, pressure, and temperature, what identifying quantity can you calculate?

Answer 1

The molar mass of the gas

Step-by-step explanation:

The ideal gas equation of state is:

PV = nRT

If we measure the volume (V), the pressure (P), and the temperature (T), we use the gas constant R (0.082 L.atm/K.mol) to calculate n (moles of gas):

n = PV/RT

Then, we can divide the mass into the number of moles to calculate the molar mass of the gas:

molar mass = mass/n