Investigating Boyle’s Law Experimentally

Alexander Boxer
PH1140 B03 Lab Report
January 30, 2024

Abstract
The relationship between pressure and volume has been measured
to a precision of 0.1%. Through graphical plots an inversely pro-
portional fit is found to show Boyle’s law is a good representation
of gaseous properties. At large volumes there was a deviation
from the expected fit, as explained in As a result deviations at
these values can not be attributed to having ideal gas like prop-
erties.

1 Introduction
From PH1620 lectures we know that the relationship between
pressure p, volume V, and temperature T relates to the properties
of a gas in which any property can be experimentally measured
when keeping one as a control and another as an independent Figure 1: Experimental setup from B30 lab script
variable, e.g. V ∝ T , Charles’s law, in an isobaric system.
Investigating Boyle’s law to show the experiment is valid was
performed. Under reduced pressure the change in volume was
3 Measurement methods
measured while pressure was varied, temperature and atmo- To measure the volume inside the capillary the change in height
spheric pressure in this case had to remain constant for this ex- of the meniscus line, from stable equilibrium, inside the capillary
periment. Through Boyle’s publication in 1660 [1] it finds the tube is found and using
change pressure to be directly proportional to the reciprocal of
the change in volume, of an ideal gas. This leads to the equation: d2
V =π h (2)
4
PV = k (1)
the volume of the gas sealed by the mercury can be found.
Taking measurements of the pressure of the gas sealed by the
where P is the pressure and V is the volume of the gas being
mercury needed to be calculated, since the mercury and gas above
measured. k is a constant of proportionality, a property of an
the mercury would exert a pressure onto the sealed gas. Using
ideal gas relating to the amount of substance and its associated
absolute temperature [2]. P = P + P g + ∆P (3)
0 H

Where P0 is the pressure at stable equilibrium, PH g is the

2 Experimental setup pressure exerted by the mercury, and ∆P is the change in pressure
from stable equilibrium, in this case this value will be negative.
Equipment list: The pressure exerted by the mercury onto the gas also needs
to be calculated in this case as it is reliant on the height of the
• 1 gas thermometer mercury
PHg = ρHg ghHg (4)
• 1 hand vacuum pump
which can substitute into Equation 3.
• 1 V-shape stand and base Through the experiment, our dependent variable was the
change in height and our independent variable was ∆P . 16 mea-
• 1 stand rod surements in the change of height of the mercury drop were made
at a constant change in ∆P from 0 to -900mbar, using excel we
• 2 jaw clamps are able to calculate the pressure and volume of the gas.
The gas thermometer contains a small amount of mercury which
was used to measure the change in pressure within the gradu- 4 results and graphs
ated capillary tube of the gas thermometer. While under reduced
pressure the mercury would be set to allow for measurement of Using the hand pump to reduce the pressure inside the glass cap-
the change in volume with respect to pressure. illary rose the level of the mercury drop as the gas sealed by the
mercury expanded to match ambient pressure within the system.
Measuring hH g as the change in height from stable equilibrium
as a result of changing ∆P resulted in this table of results:

∆P [mbar] (±5mbar) hH g [cm](±0.1cm)

0 5.5
-200 6.3
-250 6.8
-300 7.2
-350 7.6
-400 8.2
-450 8.8
-500 9.6 Graph 1: Graphical data from Table 1
-550 10.5
-600 11.4
-650 13.2
-700 14.6
-750 16.9
-800 19.7
-850 25.2
-900 35.0

Table 1: Experimental data

Using equation (1), (2), and (3) the gas volume and pressure
Graph 2: Graphical data from Table 2
can be calculated when inputting the data from Table 1

V olume [m3 ](±10−9 cm3 ) P ressure [Pa](±0.1KP a)

3.14905E-07 107337.9
3.32082E-07 102738.1
3.43533E-07 98004.96
3.54984E-07 93271.79
3.6071E-07 88405.21
3.89338E-07 84072.29
4.1224E-07 79605.95
4.35142E-07 75139.62
4.69495E-07 70940.11
5.03849E-07 66740.61
5.49653E-07 62807.94 Graph 3: Graphical when reciprocating the volume data from
6.01183E-07 59008.68 Table 2
6.52713E-07 55209.42
7.55773E-07 52610.91
8.35931E-07 49478.74 5 Analysis
9.67618E-07 47547.3
1.12793E-06 46282.95 As seen from Graph 3 the deviation from linear representation at
1.44284E-06 45620.83 low pressure can be attributed to systematic error and the non-
2.00E-06 224695.6 ideal nature of the gas, this can be seen as in the same graph.
Extrapolating the fit line to V = 0 shows pressure to be 2.63e4 Pa.
Table 2: Calculated data showing the volume and pressure of the Deviation from linearity at high pressures can be attributed to the
gas sealed by the mercury droplet in the glass capillary decrease in atomic separation. This will result in a higher collision
frequency and Van der Walls forces due to higher frequency of
dipole-dipole interactions.
By assuming the ideal gas model a lot of the physical properties
Using Spyder (Ver 3.9) graphical representation of the tabu- and interactions are ignored despite contributing to the macro-
lated data can be recorded along with its associated uncertain- scopic properties of the gas. Allowing gas to occupy space inside
ties. of its container shows the deviation at high pressure.
 Improvements to the experiment such as increasing trials and
using more precise equipment will reduce the uncertainty of the
experiment and increase the reproducibility of the data.

References
[1] Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physio-Mechanical, Touching
the Spring of the Air and its Effects (1660).

[2] Benoı̂t Paul Émile Clapeyron, Mémoire sur la puissance

motrice de la chaleur, 153-90 (1835)