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Equation
         
    Name Ideal gas equation, perfect gas equation  
 
    Equation pV = nRT  
 
    Definition of terms P = pressure, V = volume, n = number of moles, R = molar gas constant, T = temperature  
 
    Comments   The ideal gas (or perfect gas) equation describes the behaviour of a gas under the following assumptions: that the gas consists of atoms in continuous random motion, that the size of the atoms is much less than the distance between collisions, and that the molecules interact only through brief, infrequent and perfectly elastic collisions.

  The implication of this is that in an ideal gas there is no potential energy between the atoms, and its temperature is solely dependent on the kinetic energy of the atoms.

  All gases behave like ideal gases in the limit that the pressure goes to zero. Above this limit the ideal gas equation needs to be modified (to e.g. the Van-der-Waals equation) to allow for interactions between the atoms.		  
 
    References

Atkins' Physical Chemistry , P Atkins, J de Paula, OUP, 7th edition, 2002

  
         


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