Lab #10: Boyle’s Law

Brandon Bissell-Evans

Lab Partner: Grafton Derryberry

Instructor: Professor Wynne
Lab Time: 4/4/2018 12:00-1:50PM

Theory
The purpose of lab ten was to gather and graphically analyze data that illustrates the relationship
between pressure and the volume of a fixed mass of gas at constant temperature. Three variables
describe the conditions of a gas: pressure (P), volume (V), and temperature (T) in relation to each other.
These three variables equal some constant (K) to give us the equation:

(P)(V )
= K (1)
(T )

Given that K remains a constant, it can concluded that (similarly to other forms of energy
transformation) equation (1) can be rewritten as:

(P1 )(V 1 ) (P2 )(V 2 )

= (2)
(T 1 ) (T 2 )

Boyle’s law states that there is an inverse relationship between the pressure and volume of an ideal gas
at a constant temperature. Operating under the assumption of an ideal gas whose molecules occupy
negligible space and have no interactions, and that consequently obeys the gas laws exactly, if the
pressure is increased then volume of the will decrease to maintain a constant. This is represented
algebraically as:

( P1)(V 1) = K (3)

Experimental Design

Materials used to complete this lab include: one pressure sensor, one syringe, Microsoft Excel,
Capstone Graphing program, a lab laptop computer, and rubber tubing.

Experimental Procedure/Results

To set up the experimental apparatus, a pressure sensor was attached to open end of the syringe
and using a data cable the pressure sensor was connected to the laptop. The piston of the syringe was
set at 10 ml volume and the recording program was activated. A total of eight measurements were
recorded, decreasing the volume of the syringe by 1 ml at each iteration. The recorded results of this
sequence were then transferred to Excel and arranged in Table 1 (below):
 Volume Pressure 1/Volume k
11 99 0.090909 1089
10 107.3 0.1 1073
9 118.9 0.111111 1070.1
8 133 0.125 1064
7 152 0.142857 1064
6 174 0.166667 1044
5 188.5 0.2 942.5
4 256.7 0.25 1026.8

TABLE 1. Recorded Values of Pressure and Volume, Decreasing Volume

The syringe was then reset to 10ml and the recording program was again activated. A total of
eight measurements were recorded, but this time increasing the volume of the syringe by 1 ml at each
iteration. The recorded results of this sequence were then transferred to Excel and arranged in Table 2
(below)

Volume Pressure 1/Volume k

11 97.9 0.090909 1076.9
12 88.5 0.083333 1062
13 82.5 0.076923 1072.5
14 76.7 0.071429 1073.8
15 71.6 0.066667 1074
16 65.7 0.0625 1051.2
17 62.8 0.058824 1067.6
18 59.4 0.055556 1069.2

TABLE 2: Recorded Values of Pressure and Volume, Increasing Volume

An average k value of 938.54 was calculated using the mean of the values from Table 1 and Table 2.
The data recorded in Table 1 and Table 2 were then graphed in Excel to visually represent the
relationship between pressure and volume. A graph (Figure 1.) directly comparing pressure to volume
was created and shows the recorded results of pressure increasing and volume decreasing at the same
time.
 Change in Pressure Compared to
300
Volume
250
Absolute Pressure (kPa)
200

150 table2 table1

100

50

0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Volume (ml)

FIGURE 1. Change in Pressure Compared to Volume

A second graph (Figure 2.) was then created to compare 1/Volume to pressure which indicates a
generally linear and inverse relationship between volume and pressure as Boyle’s Law states.
 300
1/Volume Compared to Pressure

250
f(x) = 946.406143326702 x + 13.3059322684048
R² = 0.985897838149534

200
table2
Absolute Pressure (kPa)

Linear (table2)
table1
Linear (table1)
150

100

50

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15
Volume (ml) 0.2 0.25 0.3

FIGURE 2. Change in Pressure Compared to 1/Volume

Summary

The purpose of this experiment was to illustrate the relationship between pressure and volume
of a gas at constant temperature. This was accomplished by collecting data using a pressure gauge to
record the change in pressure of an ideal gas as the volume of the container it was in changed. The
experiment was performed one time with increasing volume and one time with decreasing volume and
would have been improved with a syringe with better construction to prevent loss of pressure. The
slope of the line in Figure 2 deviates .8% from the average k constant of (P)(V). Assuming absolute
precision of volume changes and no change in temperature, all lab groups should have the same k
value. In this experiment, temperature is assumed to be constant, but if that assumption proves incorrect
the values for pressure would be changed relative to the increase or decrease in temperature. As
indicated by Figure 1 and Figure 2 the pressure and volume are inversely proportional, aligning with
the assertions of Boyle’s Law.