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Topic: isothermal compressibility and the expansion coefficient  (Read 11183 times)

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Offline burntbread07

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isothermal compressibility and the expansion coefficient
« on: September 19, 2009, 08:54:57 PM »
EDIT:  I thought I posted this on the wrong forum but I didn't, lol.  Sorry, and here's my question again.

I've been working on this problem for a while:
Calculate the isothermal compressibility and the expansion coefficient of a van der Waals gas.  Show, using Euler's chain relation that

KTR=alpha(Vm-b)

I know that compressibility for an ideal gas is KT=(-1/V)*(dV/dP)T <---that's a partial derivative
KT=(-1/V)*(-nRT/P2)=1/P

and the expansion coefficient alpha=(1/V)*(dV/dT)P

I took the derivative of the Van der Waals eq. and got P(dV/dT)P-(a/V2)(dV/dT)P+(2ab/V3)(dV/dT)P=R

From there I can get an expression for (dV/dT)P but I don't know where to go from here.  It bears some resemblance to the virial equation pV=RT(1+(B/V)+(C/V^2)+...)

Any ideas on what I should try or what would help?

Thanks :)

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