[ladydark]

It was mentioned that diesel engines take advantage of the ideal gas law (PV=nRT) to
create the conditions for combustion. Calculate the temperature inside a piston which
compresses air at room temperature and pressure (298 K, 1 atm) with a volume ratio
of V1/V2 = 15/1. The final pressure in the piston is 30 atm. How hot is the air after
compression?

I'm confused on how to approach this problem...

[sinthreck]

Whenever you're dealing with pv = nrt (ideal gas) questions, I find the first method is to list what you have and what you don't have.

From here, often you can work it out mathematically without even understanding the chemistry (although, this is not recommended).

Fill in these details for me:

p1 = ?
p2 = ?
T1 =
T2 = T2 (this is what you are trying to find)
V1 = ?
V2 = ?

[Borek]

Whenever you're dealing with pv = nrt (ideal gas) questions, I find the first method is to list what you have and what you don't have.

That's very good approach whenever you have to solve ANY question.

In over 90% of cases when questions are asked here, just doing it, and listing known relevant equations is enough to find solution to the problem.