Gay-Lussac's Law
- The bench-mounting equipment includes a back plate that holds a low-pressure vessel.
- A thermocouple measures the temperature of the heater surface for the controller.
- Two thermocouples measure the temperature of the air in the vessel.
- A pressure transducer measures the pressure of the heated air in the vessel.
- A digital display shows the absolute pressure, both temperatures and their average value.
- Students set the controller for the range of temperatures needed during the experiment.
- The vessel holds a fixed volume of air surrounded by an insulated heater, controlled by an electronic temperature controller.
- They then record the changes in pressure as the temperature increases and plot the results to prove Gay-Lussac’s Law.
- A hand-operated valve at the bottom of the vessel allows students to normalize the air in the vessel to ambient conditions.
- The equipment uses normal clean dry air, as it behaves as an ideal gas over the range of pressures used in this equipment.