The key difference between Charles Law and Gay Lussac’s law is that Charles’ law was built on the basis of a flexible container containing the experimental gaseous substance, whereas Gay Lussac’s law was developed on the basis of a rigid container for the same experiment.
Sometimes, Charles’ law is also known as Gay Lussac’s law because Gay Lussac attributed his discoveries to Jacques Charles. In fact, Gay Lussac used many findings of Charles from his unpublished data (from the year 1787). Therefore, it was known as Charles and Gay Lussac’s law. But they used different methods for their findings and experiments.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Charles Law
3. What is Gay Lussac’s Law
4. Charles Law vs Gay Lussac’s Law in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Charles Law vs Gay Lussac’s Law
What is Charles Law?
Charles’ law is a law that states the volume of an ideal gas at constant pressure is directly proportional to the absolute temperature. This law also explains that Kelvin temperature and volume are directly proportional to each other upon a constant pressure that is exerted on a sample of dry gas.
Figure 01: An Animation Showing the Relationship between Temperature and Volume
The mathematic expression for this law is as follows:
V α T
V/T = k
Where V is the volume and T is the temperature of the gas, “k” is a non-zero constant. According to this expression, we can build the following relationship, which is the most used relationship in calculating the properties of gases.
V1/T1 = V2/T2
V1 and T1 are the volume and temperature of a particular gas at a given time, and V2 and T2 are the volume and temperature of the same gas at a different time.
What is Gay Lussac’s Law?
Gay Lussac’s law is the law for combining volumes of gases. This law was introduced in 1809. Sometimes, this law refers to the proportionality of the volume of a gas to the absolute temperature of the same gas at a constant pressure. This law is also known as the law of combining volumes. It states that when gases tend to react together, these gases react in volume. Number ratios are given at a constant temperature and pressure of the reacting gases and their products.
According to Gay Lussac’s law, the ratio between the volumes of the gases that are reacting and their products (which are also in a gaseous state) can be given in whole numbers. According to his discoveries, two volumes of hydrogen and one volume of oxygen can react with each other to give two volumes of gaseous water. These results were used by Amedeo Avogadro to build his hypothesis, which states that at a constant temperature and pressure, equal volumes of gases tend to contain equal numbers of molecules.
What is the Difference Between Charles Law and Gay Lussac’s Law?
The key difference between Charles Law and Gay Lussac’s law is that Charles’ law was built on the basis of a flexible container containing the experimental gaseous substance, whereas Gay Lussac’s law was developed on the basis of a rigid container.
Below is a summary of the difference between Charles Law and Gay Lussac’s law in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.
Summary – Charles Law vs Gay Lussac’s Law
Charles’ law is a law that states the volume of an ideal gas at constant pressure is directly proportional to the absolute temperature. Gay Lussac’s law is the law of combining volumes of gases. The key difference between Charles Law and Gay Lussac’s law is that Charles’ law was built on the basis of a flexible container containing the experimental gaseous substance, whereas Gay Lussac’s law was developed on the basis of a rigid container for the same experiment.
Reference:
1. “Charles’s law.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation.
2. “Gay-Lussac’s Law.” Byju’s.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Charles and Gay-Lussac’s Law animated” By NASA's Glenn Research Center -(Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia