How Close Together Are Gas Molecules? Consider an ideal gas at 27°C and 1.00 aim pressures. To get some idea how close these molecules are to each other, on the average, imagine them to be uniformly spaced, with each molecule at the center of a small cube.
(a) What is the length of an edge of each cube if adjacent cubes touch but do not overlap?
(b) How does this distance compare with the diameter of a typical molecule?
(c) How does their separation compare with the spacing of atoms in solids, which typically are about 0.3 nm apart?