Chapter5

TheStatistical
Approach

View
5.1 TheAtomic
show
Experiments l
that gmol
of dilute
any the
occupies
gas volume
molar
same

v0= 2.24x 10 cm3. (5.1)

atSTP
(standard and
pressure):
temperature
= 273.15 K "
To
'
Po: latm . (5.2)

thiswecanobtain
From R = P0V0/TO.
thegasconstant Theratioofthemolar
volume
to Avogadrosnumbergivesthedensityof anygasat STP:

=
Density 2.70x 10'9
atoms
/cm3 (5.3)
This indicatesthelarge numberof atomspresentin a macroscopic
volume We use
thetermatom here1na generic todenote
sense, thesmallest
unitin thegas,which
may in fact be a diatomic molecule such as Hz
Agascanapproach
thermal because
of collisions
atomic Thescatter-
equilibrium '
ingcross
section isoftheorder
atoms of
between
a=n%
a
r0 108cm (5,4)
wheren; is theeffectiveatomicdiameter.The averagedistancetraveledby an atom
between
twosuccessive 1scalledthemean
free whose
path, order
of mag
collisions'
nitudcis givenby

1
A N --
no
(5.5)
0

wheren is theparticledensityThiscanbe seenasfollows.Considera cylindrical

volumeinsidethegas,of crosssectionalareaA, as depicted1nFigure5 1. If the
ofthe 1s it
small
iength cylinder contains and'
fewatoms, m the endview
projected
of theatomsrarelyoverlap;
theimages Asthelengthof thecylinder more
increases,