Why is the ideal gas constant important?

1 Answer
Dave
Mar 19, 2018

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Explanation:

It is only important if you want to relate the pressure or the volume or the moles or the temperature of a gas to any of the other values. It is a proportionality constant for the ration of #(PV)/(nT)#,where P is pressure, V is volume, n is moles of the gas, and T is the temperature in Kelvin.

If you happen to use newtons as your pressure and #m^3# as your volume, then your gas constant (the relation of #(PV)/(nT)#) will be 8.314 J/molK. If, however, you like pressures in atmospheres and volumes in Liters, well then your gas constant is going to be 0.0821 Latm/molK.

Either way, using the ideal gas law equation, #PV=nRT#,
R is simply the ratio of the pressure and volume to the moles of gas and temperature.

#R = (PV)/(nT)#

Don't know if that explains why it is important, but it at least explains a few things about the gas constant.

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