Investigating the relationship between Pressure and absolute temperature using the PHET simulation on the gas properties

Go to PhET simulation on gas properties

Follow these instructions

Change the temperature unit from K to ^oC.

Change the Pressure unit from atm to KPa.

Choose to keep Volume constant

Pump about 10 strokes worth of gas molecules into the container.

Heat the gas by using the controls at the bottom of the screen.

Take 10 readings of temperature and pressure.

Plot a graph of temperature on the x-axis and pressure on the y-axis using EXCEL or Google Sheets.

A blank Excel file can be downloaded below ready for you to enter data – it should hopefully plot a graph for you too!

Questions

What happens to the pressure of the gas when temperature increases?

Can you explain this in terms of the molecules? Use the paragraph below to help you make some bullet points on this.

The pressure of a gas is directly proportional to the average kinetic energy of its molecules. As temperature increases, the energy of the gas molecules also increases, causing the molecules to move faster and collide more frequently with the container walls, resulting in a higher pressure. In other words, the faster movement of the gas molecules leads to higher pressure in the container.

The video below will give you some help.