MasteryExams
General Science • PhysicsHard

Which of the following describes the behavior of real gases at very high pressures and very low temperatures compared to ideal gas behavior?

A. They obey Boyle's law strictly under all conditions
B. Intermolecular forces and the actual volume of gas molecules become significant, causing large deviations from ideal behavior✓ Correct Answer
C. Molecular collisions become perfectly elastic with zero energy loss
D. The compressibility factor remains constant at exactly unity

💡 Solution & Explanation

Real gases deviate significantly from ideal gas behavior at high pressures and low temperatures because the volume occupied by the gas molecules themselves is no longer negligible compared to the container volume, and attractive intermolecular forces become substantial. Van der Waals introduced correction terms for pressure and volume to account for these real-gas phenomena. The ideal gas law assumes point masses with zero intermolecular attraction, which fails under extreme conditions. The compressibility factor deviates away from one for real gases.

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