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You are blowing up a balloon. If you use the ideal gas law to describe the inside of the balloon, how can you explain the increasing volume?

User SimpleApp
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Final answer:

The increasing volume of a balloon while blowing it up can be explained by the ideal gas law, citing Avogadro's Law, Boyle's Law, and Charles's Law, which relate changes in moles of gas, pressure, and temperature to changes in volume.

Step-by-step explanation:

When you are blowing up a balloon, the ideal gas law can explain the increasing volume through several gas laws components. As you blow air into the balloon, you are adding moles of gas, and according to Avogadro's Law, this increases the volume of the balloon since it is directly proportional to the number of moles of gas when pressure and temperature are held constant.

This explanation also aligns with Boyle's Law, which states that pressure and volume are inversely related at a constant temperature: as you're inflating the balloon, the pressure inside increases and so does the volume until it balances with the external pressure. However, if you inflate the balloon too much, the elastic limit of the balloon may prevent further expansion even though you might try to force more air into it.

Additionally, the ideal gas law and energy conservation indicate that work done on a gas, like blowing up a balloon, increases its internal energy and, consequently, affects its pressure, volume, and temperature. The increased internal kinetic energy of the gas's atoms and molecules causes the balloon to expand. Charles's Law also provides insight that with an increase in temperature, if pressure remains constant, the volume will increase, which can happen due to the heat generated by the force of blowing up the balloon.

User Madhava Carrillo
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