Explain the following seeming contradiction: You have two gases, A and B, in two separate containers of

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Explain the following seeming contradiction: You have two gases, A and B, in two separate containers of equal volume and at equal pressure and temperature. Therefore, you must have the same number of moles of each gas. Because the two temperatures are equal, the average kinetic energies of the two samples are equal. Therefore, since the energy of such a system corresponds to translational motion, the root mean square velocities of the two are equal, and thus the particles in each sample move, on average, with the same relative speed. Since A and B are different gases, each must have a different molar mass. If A has a higher molar mass than B, the particles of A must be hitting the sides of the container with more force. Thus, the pressure in the container of gas A must be higher than that in the container with gas B. However, one of our initial assumptions was that the pressures were equal. Explain.

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Chemical Principles

ISBN: 978-1305581982

8th Edition

Authors: Steven S. Zumdahl, Donald J. DeCoste

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