In Boyle's Law, when we plotted the graph between volume and pressure, why we put the volume in the x -axis and pressure on Y-axis? Thank you.

1 Answer
Nathan L.
Aug 13, 2017

Technically, it can be either way...

Explanation:

If the volume is labeled for the #x#-axis, then that makes it the independent variable here; that is to say, we're changing the volume to measure the pressure:

![d2gne97vdumgn3.cloudfront.net](useruploads.socratic.org)

However, this graph would look exactly the same if pressure were the independent variable; i.e. we're changing the pressure to measure the volume:

![http://chemistry-reference.com](useruploads.socratic.org)

It really all comes down to which variable you're changing and which one you're measuring. I think more often, pressure will be measured against volume, so volume would then be in the #x#-axis. (That doesn't mean pressure couldn't be; it may or may not be easier, though, to change the volume than to change the pressure (without changing temperature.)

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