Partial Pressures Definition

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Mya Majewski 1L
Posts: 89
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:00 am

Partial Pressures Definition

Postby Mya Majewski 1L » Thu Jan 10, 2019 5:51 pm

Can someone give the definition of partial pressures and why its important to use partial pressures for gases and concentration for everything else?

Shubham Rai 2C
Posts: 64
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:27 am

Re: Partial Pressures Definition

Postby Shubham Rai 2C » Thu Jan 10, 2019 5:59 pm

Partial Pressure is basically the pressure exerted by one gas in a mixture of multiple in a specific volume. You don't have to use partial pressure for gases per se, but gases are often measured by their pressure instead of their concentration. Also, you can't measure pressure for other states thus you use concentration as it is more convenient.

Jayasuriya Senthilvelan 4I
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2019 12:17 am

Re: Partial Pressures Definition

Postby Jayasuriya Senthilvelan 4I » Thu Jan 10, 2019 6:20 pm

Suppose we have a mixture of gases in a box. The total pressure of the mixture agains the walls of the box is equal to the pressure exerted by each individual gas. The pressure exerted by each individual gas is the partial pressure.

We use partial pressures for gases because I think because the partial pressure of a gas is proportional to the concentration, and so it allows us to calculate a k-value that is different from Kc, yet gives the same information as Kc.


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