(a) Density: Ne < Ar
(b) Root mean square velocity: Ne > Ar
a. Density
Density is defined as mass per unit volume. Since the mass of an argon atom is twice the mass of a neon atom, and the volume of the argon container is twice the volume of the neon container, the density of argon is twice the density of neon.
| Gas | Density |
|---|---|---|
| Neon | Lowest |
| Argon | Highest |
b. Root mean square velocity
Root mean square velocity is defined as the square root of the average of the squares of the velocities of the particles in a gas.
It is directly proportional to the square root of temperature and inversely proportional to the square root of molar mass.
Since the temperature is the same for both gases, the root mean square velocity of neon is higher than that of argon because neon has a lower molar mass.
| Gas | Root mean square velocity |
|---|---|---|
| Neon | Highest |
| Argon | Lowest |
Question
Consider the following samples of gases at the same temperature: Arrange each of these samples in order from lowest to highest:
a. density b. root mean square velocity .Note: Some samples of gases may have equal values for these attributes. Assume the larger containers have a volume twice the volume of the smaller containers and assume the mass of an argon atom is twice the mass of a neon atom.