A tank contains helium gas at 490 mm Hg, nitrogen gas at 0.75 atm, and neon at 520 torr. What is the total pressure in atm?

Question

25211 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2016-07-16T04:29:49

Approx. 2 atmospheres.

The total pressure is the sum of the individual partial pressures of each gas. The gases were quoted with unrealistically different units.

#1# #"atmosphere = 760 mm Hg = 760 Torr"#. You must convert the partial pressures to common units, and simply add them up.

And so......

#P_"Total"=P_(He)+P_(N_2)+P_(Ne)#, and we can convert all the units to atmospheres......

#P_"He"=(490*"Torr")/(760*"Torr"*atm^-1)=0.645*atm#.

#P_(N_2)=0.75*atm#.

#P_"Ne"=(520*"Torr")/(760*"Torr"*atm^-1)=0.684*atm#.

#P_"Total"={0.645+0.75+0.684}*atm=2.08*atm#.