Final answer:
While collisions between gas particles do not directly exert pressure on a container's walls, they are essential for maintaining a gas's energy and momentum, which contributes indirectly to the gas pressure through subsequent wall collisions. Pressure increases with the number of particles, their average velocity, and when the volume of the container is decreased.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question you've asked relates to how gas particles contribute to pressure in a container. While it's true that gas pressure is caused by collisions against the walls of the container, the collisions between gas particles themselves are also significant to the overall behavior of the gas, although they do not directly exert pressure on the container's walls. When two gas particles collide, they exchange energy and momentum, but they do not contribute to the pressure on the walls during this exchange. However, after colliding with each other, they may change direction and eventually collide with the walls. This contributes indirectly to the overall pressure because it maintains the system's energy and ensures particles continue to move and collide with the walls.
According to the kinetic theory of gases, an increase in the number of gas particles results in more frequent collisions with the container walls, increasing the pressure. This is because pressure is defined as force per unit area, and more collisions mean more force exerted over the walls' area. Additionally, a higher average velocity of the gas particles will also result in a higher pressure, as faster-moving particles impact the walls with more force.
If the volume of the container is decreased, this also leads to an increase in pressure due to gas particles having less space to move around, which results in more frequent impacts with the container walls.