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Kinetic Theory of Gases

• Ideal gas law: PV = nRT, where P is the pressure, V is the volume, n is the number of moles, R = 8.314 J/(mole. K) is the universal gas constant, and T is the temperature in K.
• The number of moles n = N/Na, where N is the number of atoms (or molecules), and Na is Avogadro’s number.
• The root mean square speed of a molecule, Vrms, is equal to the square root of 3RT/M, where M is the molecular mass of the gas.
• The translational kinetic energy of n moles of a gas is 3nRT/2.
• In a gas at a given temperature, there is a distribution of speeds of the molecules. Some molecules move relatively slowly and others move relatively fast.