Boyle’s Law: Pressure-Volume Relationship in Gases

Experiment #6 from Chemistry with Vernier

Education Level

High School

Subject

Chemistry

Introduction

The primary objective of this experiment is to determine the relationship between the pressure and volume of a confined gas. The gas we use will be air, and it will be confined in a syringe connected to a Gas Pressure Sensor. When the volume of the syringe is changed by moving the piston, a change occurs in the pressure exerted by the confined gas. This pressure change will be monitored using a Gas Pressure Sensor. It is assumed that temperature will be constant throughout the experiment. Pressure and volume data pairs will be collected during this experiment and then analyzed. From the data and graph, you should be able to determine what kind of mathematical relationship exists between the pressure and volume of the confined gas. Historically, this relationship was first established by Robert Boyle in 1662 and has since been known as Boyle’s law.

Objectives

Sensors and Equipment

This experiment features the following sensors and equipment. Additional equipment may be required.

Option 1

Go Direct^® Gas Pressure Sensor

Option 2

Gas Pressure Sensor

Correlations

Teaching to an educational standard? This experiment supports the standards below.

International Baccalaureate (IB) 2025/Physics

The students should understand that the ideal gas law equation can be derived from the empirical gas laws for constant pressure, constant volume and constant temperature as given by PV/T = constant

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Purchase the Lab Book

This experiment is #6 of Chemistry with Vernier. The experiment in the book includes student instructions as well as instructor information for set up, helpful hints, and sample graphs and data.

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