## Partial Pressure

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### Partial Pressure

When calculating partial pressure, why is it called "partial pressure" and not just pressure? What does this value represent?

Brian_Ho_2B
Posts: 221
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2019 12:16 am

### Re: Partial Pressure

It is called partial pressure instead of just pressure because there are several gases in a given volume at once. Each gas has a certain amount of moles that occupies part of the total pressure. The sum of all the partial pressures of the gases present equals the total pressure. If only one gas was present, then the "partial pressure" of that gas would just be the pressure, since it's the only gas.

Angus Wu_4G
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### Re: Partial Pressure

It is called partial pressure because when there are multiple gases, each gas is contributing to the overall pressure, and therefore the contribution of each individual gas to the overall pressure is called the partial pressure. According to Dalton's law of partial pressures, if you add up all the partial pressures of all the gases in a container, you will end up with the total amount of pressure in the container.

Joowon Seo 3A
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### Re: Partial Pressure

It is called partial pressure because in a mixture of gases, each individual gas contributes to the overall pressure.

Lauren Tanaka 1A
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Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2019 12:18 am

### Re: Partial Pressure

The partial pressure represents the it is the pressure of each individual gas of the chemical reaction. The total pressure would be the combined value of each individual gas in the reaction.

205150314
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2019 12:16 am

### Re: Partial Pressure

Its called partial pressure because you are only calculating the pressure of that one gas in the mixture of gases so you're only getting one piece reaction. Thats why there is a partial pressure and a total pressure.

nicole-2B
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Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:18 am

### Re: Partial Pressure

Brian_Ho_2B wrote:It is called partial pressure instead of just pressure because there are several gases in a given volume at once. Each gas has a certain amount of moles that occupies part of the total pressure. The sum of all the partial pressures of the gases present equals the total pressure. If only one gas was present, then the "partial pressure" of that gas would just be the pressure, since it's the only gas.

Thanks for explaining!!

Nathan Nakaguchi 1G
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### Re: Partial Pressure

It is partial pressure because each compound contributes to the whole pressure, so the pressure caused by one compound would be called partial.