Question

A tourist on vacation went scuba diving at a depth where 0.0871 l of gas in his blood is under 12.0 atm of pressure if he instantly boards a plane where his blood will be under 1.50 atm of pressure what will be the volume of gas in his blood

Answer 1

0.6968 L

Explanation:

We can calculate the resulting volume thanks to Boyle's Law, which tells us The volume is inversely proportional to the pressure:

• If the pressure increases, the volume decreases.

• If the pressure decreases, the volume increases.

Thus:

P1V1 = P2V2

We know that P1 = 12 atm, V1 = 0.0871 L and P2 = 1.5 atm, that is, the value that we do not know about V2, therefore we solve for V2:

V2 = P1V1 / P2

Replacing:

V2 = 12 * 0.0871 /1.5

V2 = 0.6968 L

Which makes sense, since decreasing the pressure increases the volume.