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Chapter 6: Problem 21

You purchase a bag of potato chips at an ocean beach to take on a picnic in the mountains. At the picnic, you notice that the bag has become inflated, almost to the point of bursting. Use your knowledge of gas behavior to explain this phenomenon.

Short Answer

Expert verified
The bag of chips inflates almost to the point of bursting when carried from the beach (high pressure) to the mountains (low pressure) due to a principle in the Ideal Gas Law where the volume of the gas increases as external pressure decreases, given that temperature and quantity of gas remain constant.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding the environmental conditions of the ocean beach

At the ocean beach, the air pressure is relatively high because of the weight of the air above it and being at sea level, which means the chips bag is under a high atmospheric pressure. The gas inside the bag of chips is at the same pressure as the air outside the bag.
02

Understanding the change as we move to the mountains

As we move up towards the mountains, the air pressure decreases due to the reduction in the weight of the air overhead. However, the gas inside the bag is still under the same pressure as it was at the ocean beach.
03

Applying the Ideal Gas Law

According to the Ideal Gas Law, the volume of a gas is inversely proportional to its pressure. Keeping the temperature constant, when we decrease the pressure on the gas, its volume increases.
04

Visualizing the effect on the bag of chips

When we take the bag of chips from the beach towards mountains, the external pressure decreases but the internal pressure remains the same. To balance this, gas molecules inside the bag will expand, and therefore, the bag of chips inflates almost to the point of bursting due to an increase in the volume of the gas inside it.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

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