Final answer:
The boiling point of chloroform would decrease if atmospheric pressure is reduced to 500 mm Hg. The exact temperature requires a chloroform vapor pressure curve for determination, but it would be lower than at 1 atm pressure.
Step-by-step explanation:
The temperature at which chloroform would boil if the atmospheric pressure is lowered to 500 mm Hg can be estimated using a vapor pressure curve similar to those used for water. Just as the boiling point of water is decreased at the top of Mount Everest (500 torr), chloroform's boiling point would also decrease at reduced pressures.
Without the specific vapor pressure curve for chloroform, we can reference the provided solution that shows how to read such a curve. If we had a graph plotting the vapor pressure of chloroform against temperature, we would draw a line from 500 torr on the y-axis to intersect the chloroform curve, then drop it down to the x-axis to find the corresponding temperature, likely resulting in a value lower than the standard boiling point of chloroform under normal atmospheric pressure.
If it's similar to water, we might expect a significant drop in the boiling point because the boiling point of water at 500 torr is about 90°C, whereas it's 100°C at standard atmospheric pressure (760 torr).