gas laws: Gas Laws Relating Two Variables

The simplest gas laws relate pressure, volume, and temperature in pairs. Boyle's law (advanced by Robert Boyle in 1662) states that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely proportional to one another, or PV = k, where P is pressure, V is volume, and k is a constant of proportionality. Charles's law (published by Jacques A. C. Charles in 1787), sometimes known as Gay-Lussac's law (independently demonstrated by Joseph Gay-Lussac in 1802), states that the volume of an enclosed gas is directly proportional to its temperature, or V = kT. This expression is strictly true only if the temperature is measured on an absolute scale. A third law states that the pressure is directly proportional to the absolute temperature, or P = kT.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Gas Laws Relating Three Variables
• Gas Laws Relating Two Variables

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