Final answer:
The Ideal Gas Law, represented as PV = nRT, is applicable for a mixture of gases in a cylinder at constant atmospheric pressure. It combines several individual gas laws and assumes the volume occupied by gas molecules is negligible, describing the behavior of real gases except at extreme conditions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Ideal Gas Law is applicable when a cylinder contains a mixture of gases under constant atmospheric pressure. This law can be derived from basic principles, having been deduced from experimental measurements of Charles' law and Boyle's law. The ideal gas equation relates pressure (P), volume (V), temperature (T), and the number of moles of gas (n), in the form PV = nRT, where R is the ideal gas constant. The Ideal Gas Law describes the behavior of real gases under most conditions, barring extreme temperatures or high pressures, where deviations from the ideal behavior can be significant.
Several individual gas laws, such as Boyle's Law (pressure versus volume at a fixed temperature), Charles's Law (volume versus temperature at a fixed pressure), and Avogadro's Law (volume versus number of moles at a fixed temperature and pressure), are special cases of the Ideal Gas Law when two of the four variables are held constant. The law assumes that the volume occupied by the molecules of the gas is negligible compared to the volume of the container.
This Ideal Gas Law is crucial in calculating the behavior of gases in various chemical and physical processes, including reactions in closed containers, the expansion or compression of gases, and the mixing of gases.