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Topic: General Gas Equation Question  (Read 3525 times)

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Offline blondyashy

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General Gas Equation Question
« on: February 10, 2008, 09:30:49 PM »
Hello the question I have a question about reads:
Find the volume of a gas at -30 deg celcius and 0.75 atm if it occupies a volume of 255L at 40.0 deg celcius and 1.25 atm. 

I know the variable I'm looking for is V1 and the rule for significant figures when multiplying and divinding states you're answer can only have as many sig figs as the least number of sig figs used in the calculation

So what this tells me is that the answer should only have 2 significant figures as 0.75 is only 2.  But the answer I get after all the calculations is 329.9520767 L.  How does it make sense to knock the answer down to 33 L?  Shouldnt is be 330 L?

Offline Yggdrasil

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Re: General Gas Equation Question
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2008, 10:06:45 PM »
Yes, the answer is 330L.  Note that this answer has only two significant figures (as can be shown more explicitly by expressing the number in scientific notation, 3.3x102 L).

Offline blondyashy

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Re: General Gas Equation Question
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2008, 11:26:43 PM »
Thank you very much!
I don't know why I didn't get that in the first place... thanks!

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