Gas



  Gas is one of the four major states of matter, consisting of freely moving ideal gas law. A gas also has the characteristic that it will diffuse readily, spreading apart in order to uniformly fill the space of any container.

Physics

The physics of diffuse to homogeneously fill any shape or volume of space that is made available to them.

The ideal gas is proportional to its temperature and number of molecules, but inversely proportional to its volume.

Like carbon dioxide from a fire extinguisher, for example, the gas will not expand to fill the room. Instead, the gas will pour out like a fluid and pool on the floor. This is due to the fact that it is more dense than the air surrounding it.[1]

The kinetic energy per molecule in a gas is the second greatest of the states of matter (after Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.

Gas particles are normally well separated, as opposed to liquid particles, which are in contact. A material particle (say a dust mote) in a gas substrate moves in Brownian Motion. Since it is at the limit of (or beyond) current technology to observe individual gas particles (atoms or molecules), only theoretical calculations give suggestions as to how they move, but their motion is different from Brownian Motion. The reason is that Brownian Motion involves a smooth drag due to the frictional force of many gas molecules, punctuated by violent collisions of an individual (or several) gas molecule(s) with the particle. The particle (generally consisting of millions or billions of atoms) thus moves in a jagged course, yet not so jagged as we would expect to find if we could examine an individual gas molecule.

Some types of gases

Etymology

The word "gas" was proposed by the 17th century Flemish chemist Paracelsus for "air".[2]

See also

Gassing

  • Gas chamber
  • Lake Nyos#The 1986 disaster

References

  1. ^ Beatty, William J. "Recurring science misconceptions in K-6 textbooks". Retrieved 2007-06-08.
  2. ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gas
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Phases of Matter (Cooling curve
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gas". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.