A tank of gas has partial pressures of nitrogen and oxygen equal to #1.61 xx 10^4# #"kPa"# and #4.34 xx 10^5# #"kPa"#, respectively. What is the total pressure of the tank?

1 Answer
Stefan V.
Jun 12, 2017

#4.50 * 10^5# #"kPa"#

Explanation:

The idea here is that when the volume and the temperature of a gaseous mixture are kept constant, the total pressure of the mixture is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of its gaseous components #-># this is known as Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures.

https://www.ck12.org/book/CK-12-Chemistry-Concepts-Intermediate/section/14.12/

In your case, you know that the mixture contains nitrogen gas, #"N"_2#, and oxygen gas, #"O"_2#, which means that the total pressure of the mixture will be

#P_"total" = P_ ("N" _ 2) + P_ ("O"_ 2)#

Plug in your values to find

#P_"total" = 1.61 * 10^4color(white)(.)"kPa" + 4.34 * 10^5color(white)(.)"kPa"#

#P_"total" = color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)(4.50 * 10^5color(white)(.)"kPa")))#

The answer is rounded to two decimal places, the number of decimal places you have for your values.

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